


The Wandering Forest - A One Piece SI

by CrowKrowQrow



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 92,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25552987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrowKrowQrow/pseuds/CrowKrowQrow
Summary: Self-Insert as a fruit powered Hashirama in One Piece 12, years before the beginning of the series. Mori-Mori no Mi (Forest-Forest Fruit) user, eventually Shichibukai MC. (Amnesiac SI)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**The objective is for him to be a Shichibukai around the time of the series' start.**

**I don't like when SIs get personal, so the guy's going to have amnesia (know nothing about himself, except for being pretty sure he's not supposed to be there) he will have all the knowledge from the wiki (I'm going to use it, might as well just give the knowledge to the character). It's more of an OC with a SI's meta knowledge.**

* * *

I don't understand what is going on. I went to bed like every other day. On my own bed, at my home.

So, HOW THE HELL AM I ON A BEACH?!

I took a quick look around, sand as far as I could see to both left and right, dense woods at my back and the endless ocean before me. Truly, it was a wonderous sight.

If I was on vacation! Not when I went to sleep in the middle of a large city at... the city of...

Shit, where was I from?

Wait, I was from... I was called... Ah, crap.

Falling on my ass, I looked at the ocean. What the hell is going on? Who am I? Where am I? And what is that fruit?

Wait, what?

Preferring to focus on the closest thing to me rather than my lack of memories and incoming existential crisis, I took a look at the strange, green with curly dark brown designs fruit.

Taking it in my hands, I stared at it, not really knowing what to expect, but hoping to get something out of it, trigger a memory maybe. It was the only thing close to me besides sand, maybe I know it or something like that.

Unfortunately, it did not seem to want to to cooperate, so I gave up on getting the answers of the universe out of a fruit.

After 2 more minutes of staring at the ocean while trying to remember something, I decided to check out the forests behind me.

Mostly to do something, anything, and see if I can get the panic from all the many unknowns around me -from who am I, to where am I- out of my mind.

The first 30 to 40 minutes were a normal, if boring, walk through the park. The vegetation was dense and rather large, various fruit trees, all very tall and with the fruits very out of my reach. Vines crisscrossed a little above me and the ground was covered in fallen leaves and branches.

I tried looking for food, mostly hoping to find some recent, still ripe, fallen fruit. I might not understand much, but I'm almost sure that I'm stranded alone here, and I know if that happens you need to guarantee a food and a water source.

Unfortunately, I ended up spending all the said time sorting through rotten fruit after rotten fruit, none really edible looking. Though give it a few days of hunger and I'm sure I'll change my tune.

I also took the time to look at what I could see of myself without a mirror. I was wearing a simple sleeveless white shirt, brown cargo shorts full of pockets and some rather comfortable slippers.

There was a nagging on the back of my head that I shouldn't be wearing such clothes, and I hoped for a second that this nagging on the back of my head could trigger a memory, but it seemed that it was just a feeling.

After some more walking, diving ever deeper into the forest, I finally found something different. Unfortunately, it wasn't ripe fruit or a river stream, instead it was a huge, three armed, dark maroon monkey/gorilla thing.

I couldn't say if it was aggressive or not, or even how it's face looked like, as it was thankfully facing the other way, chewing on something in the ground and I decided that I wasn't letting that chance go and bailed out of there before it could see me.

Making my way back, firstly as quietly as I could then as fast as possible, I arrived back at the beach to see the sun going down.

No idea if I was at the same spot as I had woken up at, there hadn't been anything remarkable around besides a large group of rocks very far away. Which were still there and very far away, so I guess I was close enough.

I thought about gathering some wood or something for a fire and/or shelter, but I had no real knowledge of survival. I think I watched some videos about it? A few scenes passed through my head, but it was all too vague to be useful.

Tired from a mixture of the walking and the panic of both waking up without memories and seeing a gigantic three armed gorilla, and _slightly_ scared of going back to the forest while getting dark, I decided to just sleep here at the beach for today and think about a better shelter tomorrow.

There was not a cloud in the sky, so I might as well eat the fruit already have with me and deal with whatever is going on tomorrow. Hopeful it's all a dream and I don't have to.

Not even thinking about peeling the strange fruit, I doubt getting food will be easy enough I'll be able to worry about such thing for much longer anyway, I take a bite.

And then try really hard to not puke out the bit of food that I have with me.

Hooooly crap this tastes bad.

After a few more deep breaths to make sure that I wouldn't throw up, I take a look at the fruit, its strange, green interior and juice not looking very appetizing.

I take a look at the fruit, and a look at the forest, another look at the fruit, another at the forest.

I think about the monstrous gorilla and compare it with the terrible taste, and decide that eating the fruit is still better than going back to the forest, by a small margin.

Taking an even deeper breath, I try to swallow the fruit as quick as possible, and in three bites it's gone. Then I'm rolling in the sand trying to keep the only food I'll get today to stay withing me.

A loud boom gets me out of my revelry, and I sit up just in time to see a gigantic eel like head go back under the waves, a shark at least 8 times my size hanging from it's mouth.

…WHAT THE FUCK?!

After calming down, or at least realizing that running in circles while screaming isn't helping anyone, I decide to do the most reasonable thing I can think of right now.

"All hail C'thullu, the Great Old One of the Deeps!" Seeing no reaction I tried again "What is Dead may never Die!" and again "Hear me Poseidon, great god of the seas!" and again...

 _Well, that was useless_. I thought as I laid -fell- down on the sand, tired after screaming at the sea for help from whatever eldritch creature may answer for however long it has been. Though I think it was mostly me venting by screaming at the ocean.

I really just wanted a bed right now.

That and answers. But, though both were unlikely, a bed seemed more possible. Or more mundane at least.

As I laid there with my eyes closed, I imagined a soft, perfect bed beneath me, instead of the rough sand. I was focusing so much on it that I could almost feel it.

Except when I raised my arms to stretch, I actually felt some strange, soft texture, not at all sand like.

Sitting up once again, I'm left baffled as I look at the mysterious green material that made a bed around me.

Running my hand through it tells me that it's soft and silk like, just like I wanted for my imaginary bed.

Getting an idea, I closed my eyes again and pictured/hope for a phone, I concentrated really hard and... nothing. Okay, I apparently can't create things. Maybe this is some natural super fast growing sand moss?

Sitting on the strange new bed, I heave a sigh as I recline back and- jump back as my back hits something solid.

Looking at what I hit I see a large, green, hairy chair back? Yeah, it seems like growing from the ground behind my was the back of a rather large hairy chair.

Running my hand through it, I could identify this material, it was more recognizable than the silk like bed, it was made of leaves.

The strange chair wasn't hairy, it was instead covered in a grass leaf like material, that was so thin and covered it so thoroughly that it seemed like it was hair/fur.

Ripping a chunk of the grass-fur also revealed the wooden like structure beneath it.

Getting a new idea, I closed my eyes and imagined a tree this time, an apple tree to be more specific, growing in front of me.

I did not even have to think that hard on it. I could feel a small pull inside of me, and opened my eyes to a small, flourishing apple tree, or at least an apple-tree like tree. Including apples.

Raising my hands to grab the eye level fruit growing from the just created the tree's branch, I take one of the apples and bite it. And it does taste like apples, normal apples. I quickly eat through three more of the fruits, that shitty tasting fruit from before hadn't been very fulfilling.

It had been surprisingly simple to make it, just... wanting it. It's weird to explain, it was like how you get your arms to move, you just will it. After I finished eating, I spent some two hours making a mixture of trees and wood/leaves structures around the beach. Testing this strange power.

Using it does tire me out a bit, and it makes me quite hungry, but I feel surprisingly fine and energized after eating a bit, and most of the things I created were various variations of fruits that I remembered, which I would then eat to recover what I spent to created. It was quite the efficient system.

Still, being able to remember what's a pineaple but getting nothing on what's my name was irritating.

Well, at least food won't be a problem anymore, I think to myself while eating a banana, though it was purple and came from a some odd spiky bushes growing by my side, while sitting in a large vine between two trees growing in the sand. All, of course, created by this weird -Wood Release like- power of mine.

Housing is not that big of a problem either, I thought while looking at the large box of wood covered in grass/fur.

I was still trying to think on how to get drinking water, but I can sleep thirsty for today.

I didn't really freak out or question the power much. This whole situation was weird enough already, I wasn't about to freak out about the only thing that's been beneficial for me so far.

So, now that I have guaranteed a food source, I should focus on the second point of interest for anyone stranded. How the hell do I get to civilization?

* * *

**He ate the Mori-Mori no mi (Forest-Forest Fruit), a Paramecia which makes him a forest-man, with the ability to control/create plants and fungi.**

**This takes place around 12 years before the start of the series. The SI has a One Piece character body, which means logic and biology may get out through the window.**

**This story will eventually include OCs. I'll probably use One Piece born characters from other anime, as it gives an outline for me to write and something for the readers to recognize. I'm taking suggestions, for example:**

**Kimimaro [Naruto]: Nihilist, overly loyal sole survivor of mercenary clan turned pirate that terrorized the West Blue for centuries. Very proficient with CQC, ate the Paramecia Bone-Bone fruit.**

**I WON'T add any foreign mechanic or power, just the characters name, form and general personality to create a One Piece native. If it barks like a Kimimaro and walks like a Kimimaro, it's a Kimimaro. And my naming sucks, better just put in the same name than making a cheap copy named Steve Steveson Steverino, The Steven.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I welcome any suggestions of non-cannon (from filler or based on other animes) islands/pirates that he could visit. So far the only confirmed confrontation is with Moria, probably recruiting him after.**

**Really liked Moria's last showing in the series, won't spoil it, but he seemd like a great guy and it ended badly for him. I mean, great guy compared to the before then just asshole(ish) villain he was. And brings along some good canon characters, like Perona, Absalom, Dr. Hogback and the zombies. Also, the funniest laugh in the show.**

* * *

***At an undiscovered island, on the Calm Belt***

I woke up to a wooden ceiling while laying on a comfortable, rather large bed.

It took me a moment and two long blinks to gather my wits. The bed was really comfortable.

When I gathered said wits, I took a look around. A bare, all wooden, room greeted me. A 12m² cube of wood with nothing but a large square slight elevated from the ground floor, the top of the elevation covered in the strange thin silk like grass from yesterday. This being my bed.

That and a small, also wooden, basket sitting on the corner in front of the door, holding some of the fruits that I had made yesterday.

Not bad for the first day of being stranded... shipwrecked?... I tried to remember anything for a moment, but it seems sleep didn't help there. Still no idea who, what or where I am.

I got up from the plant bed and looked around, at the wood, living house I had also made last night. It's technically all living, as might I have no clue on the specifics of how my creations do it, but the plants are living, rooting and growing on the sand beach ground.

I could... feel/sense/hear it. It was strange, I know. And, as I opened the door, I could also see it. Slowly but surely a mixture of vines, roots and grass were covering the sand around the cube house, with the house in the center of it.

All thanks to this strange power, a power that I got after eating a really, _reaaally_ bad tasting fruit and seeing a large sea monster... Why does that feels like it should ring a bigger bell?

The wooden house was built on the divide between the beach and the forest. Tropical rainforest to one side and direct access to the beach to the other, a paradisiacal sight. Not that it counted for much, there were no windows yet, just four slight rectangular openings for air circulation.

It was, of course, because I hadn't time to make windows yet. Definitely not because I'm afraid of having three armed super gorillas at one side and shark eating leviathans on the other.

Shrugging, being far too early for all that trouble and already having way too many confusing things to worry about, I decided to go for a swim.

Well, not really a swim, considering both said shark eating leviathans and the sharks they eat that roamed the waters around the isle, as I had clearly seen yesterday. Just throwing some seawater at my face would do for refreshment and to help wake me up.

Stepping out, still a bit zombie like, I moved towards the sea, in front of the cube's exit.

I had slept surprisingly well for a recent amnesiac stranded alone and with powers that -while I can't be sure because of my lack of memories- I'm 80% sure are not normal. And are probably the result of that fruit, considering the timing and strangeness of the green marked foul tasting thing.

Stopping before the waves, I took a moment to look at the endless blue before me.

It was thankfully empty of monstrous creature of the deep- Oh, forget it, a gigantic goldfish just surfaced held by the tentacles of some unseen, larger abomination under the surface a few kilometers away from the coast.

I forced down the irrational fear that the scene caused in me, _"creatures that large can't get me so close to the coast, creatures that large can't get me so close to the coast, creatures that large can't get me so close to the coast..."._ Probably... Hopefully... I'm on an island! I'll need to deal with the sea sometime, I can't be afraid of it.

Walking closer to the shore, I scooped a handful of water and brought it to my face. It's was all going perfectly, right until a wave brought the sea level to just a bit above my waist, after which I lost all motor function.

Unfortunately, the sudden lost of control of my limbs while leaning forward meant that I fell face first in to the ocean water.

The first 5 seconds of my drowning were regrettably wasted by me screaming "OH SHIT!", which only wasted my breath my breath, then I started to desperately squirm for survival.

Fortunately, the wave after the one that took me down dragged me a bit closer to the beach, enough so that, with far too much difficulty for such a small task, I managed to dig my arms and feet around the sand and resist the terrible pull of the 30 cm waves.

With Herculean effort, after what felt like an eternity and may have lasted as much as 1 hour, I managed to drag myself the 3 meters necessary for the sea water to stop covering my body.

After which, in a show of acrobacy I didn't know I was capable of, I flipped backwards with one hand away from the sea, fell on a bridge position, and crab walked backwards as fast as I could all the way back to my cube.

Collapsing on my grassy/sandy "porch", I tried stop hyperventilating. _"What the fuck was that?! I just, lost control, became so, so, weak! I just touched the water and-"_

I was stopped by a sudden epiphany. Was, was this One Piece? Huge, odd sea monster and strange powers from weird, bad tasting fruit that come with a weakness to water.

But it couldn't be! One Piece was just a fantasy world that I read about... But how did I know it was a fantasy world? How could I be sure? I didn't even know my damn name!

I think I watched a series or read a manga... Something like that. Thinking I'm living at the One Piece world feels silly. Wrong... Like waking up alone and without memories in the middle a deserted beach wrong.

I watch the horizon and the half a foot waves that almost killed me, hoping the endless and uncaring sea might hold and share some answers. Or maybe just enjoying the Kaiju battle playing out in front of me, as an enormous shark eel thing jumps out of the sea and steals the goldfish and part of the tentacles of the unseen kraken, which proceeded to retaliate.

Deciding that I knew nothing about the world and that what universe I was in didn't really matter, while filing away my weakness to either water or seawater -I need to find out which one it is later-, I figured it was better to focus on the short term necessities.

Like the fact that I need some freshwater. I'm thirsty as hell, having gone to sleep already thirsty yesterday.

An island like this, so well forested and with large wildlife in it, is bound to have a freshwater source.

But I knew that I couldn't just rush towards it, there was at least one three armed gorilla four times my size in that jungle. Besides who knows what else.

Because of that, today will be a busy day. I'll need to practice to see how I can defend myself with these tree powers quickly, because I need to enter the forest and find a water source today. I might be too thirsty and weak to do it tomorrow.

So, skipping breakfast, I go straight to training.

Straight to training... Straight to training... How am I supposed to train for combat? More importantly, how am I supposed to train mystical tree powers?

Going with the first idea that came to mind, I willed a large row of spiked roots to grow from the sand. Seemed a simple enough start.

Staying with my eyes opened instead of closed to focus -like I did yesterday- I looked wide eyed as five large wooden spikes around two times my height and three times my radius burst from the ground. Just as I had imagined/willed it to be.

Okay, that was easy, I think patting away the sand blown into my shirt and shorts. Probably useful as well, the strength with which these... roots? erupted is sure to be enough to seriously hurt someone.

Good, good.

I have to consciously stop from tapping my fingers together like a cartoon villain while imagining uses for my ground spikes that Vlad the Impaler would be proud of.

Now to think of something defensive then.

… That one is a bit harder. I sit on the grass growing around my cube trying to think of a good defensive move besides just making a wooden wall around me.

I did make the wall, there now being a large wooden wall to the right of my home. It stood taller and thicker than the cube's walls, I was also able to create it with my eyes open and without much difficulty. The large wood fortress wall grew from the sand in less than a minute, and I didn't even feel that tired.

It did make me hungry though, so I grabbed the fruit basket that I had made and filled yesterday, and rested it besides me for quick access to meals while I trained.

And now here I stood, or sat, eating my fifth orange look alike while playing with the moving and growing spikes of root that I had formed earlier, trying hard to think of a new defensive move.

Because I had set that as a challenge to myself earlier and I'm sure that I could do it. Definitely not because I'm avoiding and trying to push away having to face the 8 meter ape with three arms, all larger than my whole body.

Five more minutes and a sixth orange later, still with no new techniques, I decided to stop being a coward and to go look for a source of water.

Still, the training was useful.

I discovered that creating the plants was easier, faster and less taxing when I'm touching the ground with my skin. Can be anything, from my hands to sitting down so my calves touch the sand.

Also, focusing on my creations I could sense them growing as well, if I tried I could feel them taking in the necessary supplements from both the soil and the air. Using it to grow and multiply, with all my creations around the beach slowly but surely growing and spreading, as plant are wont to do.

I felt/heard/saw as a new, sixth root slowly emerged from the five giant snake like roots. Growing without my direct order.

Getting up, I moved towards the -totally not terrifying- jungle. Taking the basket of fruits with me, a simple thought creating vines connecting it to my back like a backpack.

The writhing mass of roots I had been playing with following at my behest.

The first twenty or so minutes were the same as yesterday, a monotonous walk through a dense jungle in a barely walkable path of fallen leaves and tree branches.

The mass of wooden spikes helping me along as if through telepathy. I start thinking the path is too full of natural debris, the thick roots wash away the rotting leaves and branches. I wonder how to get through a fallen tree, I discover that said roots can destroy a very thick tree with ease.

This clear path of destruction will also help when making my way back to my cube.

There was a downsize as I felt a slight tiredness from moving them around so much. The roots reacted instinctively to my will, but I could feel a pull, a connection, that demanded some energy to maintain their growth and movement.

Thankfully I could replenish any energy spent by eating from my backpack fruit basket. Now covered in silk fur like grass to better capture solar rays and with a small branch holding a growing fruit above it's opening.

A fruit which can be dropped in the basket, with new one growing in its place, with but a thought. Yes, I got a self-replenishing fruit basket now and must be past my twelfth "orange" , no idea where this endless appetite is coming from.

With the help of my new best friends, the moving roots, I made it as far into the forest in 10 minutes as I had during the 40 minute walk yesterday. A wonderful friend, really helpful, great listener too.

Sadly, this also meant that I arrived at the three armed monkey's territory in said 10 minutes.

It was thankfully empty, save for a few half-eaten fruits ( which hopefully meant they were herbivores).

Taking a quick look around and finding nothing interesting, I decided to go on ahead.

After 10 more minutes of walking, I arrived at a clearing in the woods, the trees opening to a leaf covered ground with a rock in the middle of it, the canopy of trees opened up around it, allowing for more sunlight to illuminate the place.

It was a beautiful scene, unfortunately interrupted by a far away roar/shriek. It seemed like a monkey's, I don't know how I know, but I know it's a monkey's call.

I warily look around and ready my buddies, roots 1 through... 8 now? Wow, they are growing and multiplying faster than I thought.

Seeing no 8 meter tall gorilla around, I relax and actually look around the clearing, being first too stunned from actually finding something different than endless forests and then too tense from the roars to really see what's around me.

It was a small clearing, a slightly more spaced opening between the trees in a vaguely oval shape, with a large perfect cube of a stone covered in strange writings in the middle.

Wait, What?!

Stumbling to my first sign of civilization, I run my hand through the vines and the moss that coated stone, clearing it away.

Closer to it I could see that it was actually somewhat submersed in the ground, part of it not visible. I thought to try and see if my roots could feel it up beneath the dirt, then gave up the idea when I almost keeled over from the blast of sensations that roared in my head as I suddenly felt/tasted the movements of my roots.

Okay, I need to learn how to control and deal with those sensory bombardments real soon.

Still, I ignored the discovery that I could not only sense my plants, but sense through my plants, and that it hurts my head to do so, and focused on the greater discovery of some form of civilization.

I would say this lightened some hope that I wasn't stranded alone in this weird ass island, but the rock seemed ancient and unkempt, so I doubt that there has been anyone around here for the last century or so.

Forcing away the slight depression brought about the discovery that the rock didn't mean I would find a city around, I focused back on the writing, to try to get something out of it.

And I don't know if it was because I didn't remember or never knew how to read, but I don't have a clue what the hell it is saying.

Wait, I know this... I don't know what it's saying, but _know_ this rock, or this type of rock...

After far more time staring at the rock than I'm proud to admit, I had an epiphany.

Oh, shit... This is a poneglyph, the foul fruit I ate yesterday was a Devil Fruit, I'm weak to water and the huge sea creatures I saw earlier were likely Sea Kings. I'm actually at One Piece.

Sitting on the half buried priceless piece of history, I calmly analyzed my situation in my head.

"HOW THE FUCK IS THIS IS EVEN POSSIBLE?! WHY THE HELL DO I REMEMBER WHAT'S A DAMN PONEGLYPH BUT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S MY NAME?! IS ANYONE THERE?! FUUUUUCK!"

Okay, maybe I didn't calmly analyze the situation as much as I screamed my frustrations at the forest at the top of lungs.

Getting no answer from the trees -stingy assholes, they're hearing me, I know it, I could _feel_ it- I breathed out a heavy sigh and buried my head in my hands.

I was precociously removed from my coming further hysteria by a wet "HRLSH!" sound, making me jump from the poneglyph and turn in its direction.

Turning, I see the steroid fueled gorilla that I had benn so scared of, held impaled in the air by 5 out of my now 11 writhing roots. It's three arms hanging limply by it, two by the side and one on its back.

Well... All that worry for this? I started approaching my catch, calmly walking closer until I was at an arms reach of it. Then the world suddenly spun into a kaleidoscope of colors and everything, specially my head, hurt.

If I had eyes at the back of my head, or paid any attention to my surroundings, I might've realized that my kill had a friend close by. One that, enraged over the impalement of his buddy, decided to deck me in the schnoz.

Jumping at me in a movement that I couldn't follow even if I wasn't distracted by the corpse of it's friend, it threw a heavy two handed punch with its two frontal arms.

Even though I hadn't seen it, one my roots did react in time, getting between me and the monstrous primate. Unfortunately, said root hadn't been enough.

Though the root slowed the punch, the things' fists still broke through the wood, hitting my face and sending me flying towards and then through the closest tree to my right.

Everything hurt. My head more so, but everything else hurt too. Holding said head and groggily trying to focus the colors flying around my vision into proper shapes, I slowly got up from the- Holy hell I'm indented far into this tree. Or the long brown/green shape that I'm almost sure is a tree.

Pretty sure this shouldn't be possible, definitely not with my spine intact.

Stumbling out of the large, indented inwards, tree trunk and almost falling on my face, I turned towards a piercing shriek to my right and managed to focus the rust red blur slowly getting bigger into the shape of a large angry, screaming ape running towards me.

Good to know that the noises aren't from a concussion, the ape is just shrieking very loudly.

I can't say there was an epic showdown between us, after I recovered enough from the sucker punch to form coherent thoughts, I panicked and tried to run backwards, stumbling drunkenly to the tree that had my spine imprinted into it.

In said panic I also wished really hard to get that thing away from me. Luckily my squad, the now 10 writhing roots (root #3, your sacrifice will be remembered) answered my desperate call.

In a burst so fast that I couldn't really follow, both because of untrained eyes and the still swirling vision, three roots erupted from the ground and speared the beast through, from ass to head.

Falling seated on the destroyed tree trunk, I tried to gather my breath and thoughts.

I don't know if it was the fact that I have no clue on what to do, the fact that I'm in what I'm pretty sure should be fiction, the fact that I almost died to a gorilla with a nonsensical anatomy or if I'm just going crazy from stress. But I started laughing like a deranged man.

I laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more. Falling from the trunk to roll around the ground in laughter at some point.

"Ah, ah, ah, I'm fucked." Getting my breath back from my laughing attack, I stated the obvious.

Marooned in an apparently abandoned island, completely incapable of swimming, surrounded by sea monsters and super gorillas.

"Well, at least I'm not in Warhammer." One had to focus on the bright side of things.

Out of my panic induced laughing, I realized that the sky was already darkening, I have no idea how long I had spent walking through the forest and panicking about my now surety of being in a world that should be fictional, even being one of the most nonsensical fictional worlds.

I started making my way back through the path of destruction that my roots forged wherever I threaded. I'd rather not stay in the still mostly unknown forest while it's dark, regardless of being able to unconsciously kill a large animal with my Devil Fruit powers.

After some 20 minutes of backtracking, I arrived back at my house, feeling far more comforted by the familiar sight of the hairy green cube I called a home than I imagined I would be.

My roots followed close by, 5 of the now 13 roots dragging both the corpses still impaled primates behind me. I'm sure I could find some use for them.

Collapsing into a seated position on the slight step on my front door, I stared at the sunset over the ocean. A beautiful sight, not even marred by the huge, ugly, Anglerfish-looking creature fighting the equally large mixture of an eel with a crocodile on the horizon.

Another wet "SLURSH" was heard as my roots, now 14, removed themselves from the corpses of the strange creatures and retreated to the underground. I could still feel them shifting and growing beneath my feet.

Quickly going over my discoveries, then just as quickly burying most of the world changing discoveries and questions, I focus on the one truly important factor. I'm still very thirsty.

I had left to get some freshwater, but instead found out that I'm on wonky world that I thought was fiction and that there's a priceless and illegal piece of history on this island. A productive day, but not in the way I had hoped.

Heaving my tenth sigh of the day, I laid back in the wooden floor of the house behind me, my feet still touching the sand outside.

"I really needed to that find river or lake today." I think out loud as I eat another of my orange look alike creations. "Even if my powers are useful every human needs to drink water." I think to myself, taking a bite of the fruit. "It's not like-"

Mid way to another bite I stop as my thoughts coming to a screeching halt and I look at the fruit. Wet, dripping juice from the way too orange orange stares back at me.

Hoping to be right for the ease it mean for the future and hoping to be wrong so I don't have to worry about being possibly retarded, I moved a bit further from my house, closed my eyes and imagined a coconut tree lying down. A large single trunk extending horizontally in the sand from me to the sea ahead.

I picture it reaching into the sea, I will it to take in the salt water -normally unsuited to ground plants-, and I command it to remove the salt while storing the  
desalinated water into its coconut like fruits.

It must've taken me more than I realized to picture it, because when I open my eyes the sunset is gone and the moon is already halfway up the sky.

But it's done. Growing from at ground besides me is a single large brown tube covered in oval protuberances, looking like a energy tube covered in green ostrich egg like fruits.

Walking to one of the protuberances, a rough, green, egg-shaped ball, I remove it from the tube.

I was thinking about how to open the weird egg shaped coconut analogue, when it seemed to understand what I wanted and opened itself up, its upward pointed tip opening like a facehugger's egg. So I can _talk_ to even the fruits I created? Neat.

Taking a small sip of the water to see what it is like, I widen my eyes and down the rest of it in three seconds as the slightly sweet, very refreshing freshwater fills my mouth and soothes my throat. I then proceed to drink three whole more copy-coconuts, being far more thirsty than I had realized.

Finally full, I took one more coconut with me as I moved back to my home and pressed down the shame from having this whole adventure and almost dying for a resource I could've made at the beach with no real downside.

Now, sitting on my porch, watching the waves at night while sipping on the not-coconut coconut's water from a straw made from a small bamboo like plant that I created just for this, I could almost forget my problems. This actually solved most of them, my powers are a cheat code for surviving after all.

The bamboo straw also taught me realize that I could grow plants directly from my skin, as I had grown it straight out of my palm. And I filed that away with the other many discoveries of the day.

Even the sight of the titanic a turtle with the neck of a giraffe being attacked by some strange flying fish piranha couldn't take this relaxed mood away from me.

Until I started becoming paranoid about said flying fish launching themselves at me from the sea and ran back inside my cube.

Tired from the walk through the woods, my slight breakdown and from almost being murdered by an angry gorilla, all exacerbated by the constant use of my power, I fell face first into bed as soon as it was in sight.

It's not like I could take a shower anyway, I hadn't found a river or lake or -more likely- made a plant capable of solving that issue yet. I'll deal with that tomorrow.

A large roar echoed through the night, different from the shriek/roar that I now knew came from the 3 armed gorillas. Whatever that was, I'll also deal with it tomorrow.

And so, I gracefully passed out.

* * *

**While they are rare in other seas, the Calm Belt (where he's at) is full of Sea Kings, thus why there were so many sightings in the chapter.**

**His own creations have a smudge of his "will" in it, which makes them act like Gaara's sand. Other than that he can control surrounding plants, but they don't move unless explicitly controlled to.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Need ideas for the name of the character, which he will give to himself. I'm trying to make one by putting together famous pirates' name, so far I got: Edward D. Vane, Williams D. Reis and Charles D. Shih. Or straight up go with Senju Hashirama, maybe with a "D."**

**EDIT: It was decided by vote to be Senju Hashirama, but I felt it to be too much of a rip off for a character that won't act like Hashirama, so I'm going with only Senju. So far as a single name, but the MC may include a surname to it -Greenhand or something like that- later on.**

* * *

***Somewhere in the Calm Belt, 12 years before the start of cannon***

After waking up on a nice and comfortable bed, this time with a belly full of both food and water, I decided that this being stranded at undiscovered islands thingy isn't so bad.

Provided that you have a building and survival cheat code of a power, of course.

Now, I just have to work on not drowning or getting sucker punched by large red three armed gorillas and everything should be fine. Sounds easy enough.

Waking up, I didn't actually leave the grass bed. I did something I had thought of while on the trek around the forest the previous, but waited to try in the relative safety of my wooden cube. I closed my eyes and tried to feel my creations around me.

They answered to me back with a roar, various presences, feelings and sensations flashing suddenly into my head and leaving me confused, numb and with a killer headache.

But it worked, I could see/feel/sense all around me. Everything in a few hundred meters radius was so... _clear_.

I could also See through my connection the proper size of my creations for the first time. Constantly growing beneath the cube house was a vast network of roots and by the beach I could feel the seawater/coconut converter constant expansion, where yesterday there was just a large single trunk there was now a crisscross of coconut vines covering a football field of beach ground, two of the vines already reaching the trunk thickness of proper new water filters.

There were also the large attack roots, moving underground as if they were Dune's sandworms. They had no leaves or proper nutrient capturing roots, doing neither photo nor chemosynthesis, depending entirely on my energy to function, unlike my other creations, they were not at all self sustainable, .

And I went to sleep ordering them to grow as much as they could. Lifting my arms to try to pull myself from my bed, I could see that they were noticeable thinner.

Managing to drag myself out of the fluffy grass bed, I moved towards the basket left haphazardly in the middle of the room. Moving with slow, feeble steps, the hunger caused by a night of feeding said growing, unsustainable sandworms had left me waaay too weak.

Collapsing besides the holy basket of food, I started eating. After two fruits in, having a bit more brain power, no longer almost dying of hunger, I cut the connection with my moving roots. Closing the leak of energy feeding the greedy plants.

I'll try to think of a more sustainable solution after this. This, being finishing the eighth peel-less orange look alike that I gobbled up in less than a minute.

After eating through the whole basket, while using my returning energies to create more fruits from the branch hanging from said basket, I decided to focus on other important things for one's survival.

Or at least important enough when you have powers that can magically solve the issues of food and water in an unknown, uninhabited island.

I want to take a shower.

No longer too weak to move, I properly get up and stretch, then move to the door of the cube, when I noted that the moment I had finished eating, my previously paper thin, bone only arms returned to their normal, healthier versions. _"What kind of bullshit biology is this?"_

A sudden flash of memory reminded me that Luffy and Brook healed broken bones in less than a minute by drinking milk...

Ignoring the affront to basic biology, I left the house.

Leaving the safety of my home, I took the time to look around. And hoooly crap, did my plants obey the "grow" command.

Where just yesterday was a sand beach ground covered in thin vines, was now a grass land, green as far as the eye could see. The few trees, mostly fruit bearing, that I had made on the first day were now almost half as large as the likely decade old trees covering the coastline.

Multiplying too, as I could see the beginning of smaller trees surrounding the originals.

I took note that said new smaller trees were growing more slowly than their parents. I knew that both because I could not see them visibly growing, like their freaky progenitors, and because I somehow _knew_ the difference in their growth rates.

I had sensed out their growth after waking up, but seeing it in person was a wholly different thing.

Well, filling away this morning's discoveries, I continued to walk in the direction of the beach, now grasslands, that held my water filters.

Taking one coconut in my hands while making a bamboo straw from my other one, I stretch up to take in the even more paradisiacal sight. With the grasslands all the way towards the sea and the coconut water, all I'm missing are the tiny umbrellas and I could pretend that I'm having a vacation on random tropical place #7.

It made my early theory that I'm in this One Piece world much more likely when I can't remember the name of any tropical country, which I'm sure I knew one, but can remember that Robin was born in the island of Ohara, at the West Blue.

I know I had decided to wait until I was out of the island, but with my food and water concerns dealt with, I can't help but consider the possibility more. And this lack of knowledge except when regarding the One Piece world does seem suspicious.

…

Screw it, it doesn't change much until I reach actual civilization, so it doesn't bear much thought for now.

Okay, overcoming the small rage at my selective memories, I move past my saltwater filters and closer to the ocean.

This time not really affected by the two large sea snakes with strangely lion like heads fightin- Oh, wait. Those two are mating... okay, okay, okay, that's... different.

After voyeuring stupefied at 20 more minutes of giant creatures going at it all over the horizon -I tried looking away, but it was hard, they were island sized-, I recomposed myself and focused back on what I originally intended. Making a plant to carry the sea water to my home so I could take a shower.

 _"Definitely adding a heavy filter"_ I thought to myself hearing the roar of the still mating lion-sea-snakes.

I sat at the grass close to the sea and focused on the plant I wanted to bring to world, though not sitting close enough that a wave could reach me and make a repeat of yesterday's almost drowning.

Considering that my plants are apparently self sustainable as long as I get them sun and water -even saltwater-, I decided to go for an open air aqueduct. Putting most of the plant's structure above ground, with more access to the sun.

Closing my eyes, I pictured a large wooden tube covered in wide, five petaled green/purple plants going from the sea line to my cube house, held by and connected to three robust, evenly spaced, trunks.

Focused on it, I could sense the wood slowly grow and form into my willed construct. Feel as it grew from me to the sea, then from the sea to the house and feel as it connected with the three support cubes along the way and then with a corner of the roof of the cube. And there, I had a shower.

Sitting with my eyes closed, I could feel as the tube pulled in air through small holes along its bark, then used said air to pump the seawater into its hollow middle, passing by layers of filters made from a tall grass like moss and finally falling from the roof in a corner of my home.

Focusing on said home, I quickly created a thin wall to stop water from splashing everywhere, and willed the bark beneath the artificial, natural shower to be specially absorbingly. Taking in the water and distributing as needed along the growing root network.

This power really was the survivalist cheat code.

I have no idea the depths behind growing moss in hollowed wooden tubes, or converting saltwater into coconut water (though it tastes more like clear freshwater), or even how the hollow, cubic tree covered in moss I live in survives. But here I am, building/creating all of that.

If it is One Piece it would make some sense. For the simple fact that nothing on that show actually makes sense, logic goes through the window and Devil Fruits have some bullshit powers.

One shower and some 40 minutes later. I was sitting on my porch, a fruit in hand and ready to deal with the second issue of the day.

The sun was already going down but it was still in the sky, must have spent more time sensing the my creating then I thought, but there was still sunlight to burn.

Closing my eyes, I reconnected with the attack roots that had I closed off earlier. I wanted to try to deal with the unsustainability of my... Wow, now 138 independent attack roots before dark. They were currently writhing like snakes underneath the roots from the house, the water filters and the growing grasslands.

They really took to my order of "grow" before going to sleep. No wonder I woke up starving, I was already hungry after reconnecting with them for less than a minute. Thankfully I came prepared, having a large -and growing- stock of oranges besides me.

Eating as I focused, I try out my first idea. I gathered the mass of writhing roots, making all of them meet one of their tips at a single point. Uniting all of them at that single point, I pushed said point into the surface.

The noise of a burst of earth told me it had worked. Opening my eyes, I took in the round protuberance sticking out of the upturned earth. With a radius larger than two of me lying down -what? I was my only equipment of measure-. And I knew it was only the tip of the iceberg.

Getting up, I moved closer to the half sphere sticking out of the ground, munching on an orange and taking the basket with me as I went.

Arriving in front of the sphere of roots, I focused on the most obvious solution someone with no clue of botany could think of to help maintain living roots. Give them a good tree.

Now, most people couldn't do that, but fortunately, I ate a fruit that tasted like a spitted on ashtray.

It was like a slow motion explosion of branches, multiple thin -visibly thickening- branches covered in sparse -visibly growing- short green leaves burst into existence, slowly but visibly growing from the half sphere in front of me.

Nodding in approval of my own work while chewing on an orange, I sat in front of the roots, closed my eyes and focused.

Waking from my plant growing induced trance some 30 minutes later, I was greeted to the sight of a massive tree towering over everything else on the beach.

The tree stood far taller than my cube home and even slightly taller than the century-old trees by the coastline. It was also ridiculously wide, with a trunk with a radius larger than three of me lying down and a canopy of spreading branches that casted a shadow that covered from the sea line where I stood all the way back to my cube.

And most importantly, I could feel from my connection to it that it no longer needed me to sustain itself. Though I would need to spend energy to order it to move.

After I finished growing and molding the tree, I sat down with my back to the trunk of the new tree and stared as the horizon started slowly turning orange as the sun set.

With that I had solved all of my immediate issues. I now had food and clean water, self-sustaining protection and even a bath on this island.

Now, the only hurdle left was getting to civilization.

It was starting getting dark, but I was not tired enough to go back to sleep for a change, so I went to deal with the two gorilla corpses I had left besides the house.

Before that, I approached and touched the bark of the newborn giant tree that held all of my roots and covered all of the surrounding beach in its shade. With but a thought the tree developed small, round fruit like protuberances, all emitting a soft greenish-yellow light, illuminating the area.

Making bioluminescent nuts was easier than I feared. It was pretty useful as it provided enough light for me to see my future gorilla project, but not enough to bother if I decide to go sleep outside. And I know I could adjust the brightness if I wished to.

"Ah, you're truly a great friend, giant tree." I said to my only companion. The rustle of its leaves the only answer. "Yeah, me too." Patting the trunk of my creation, I turn back to the three armed corpses.

"Hmmm" I mumble as I stare at them. "Hmmmm" I turn my head to look at it from a different angle. "Hmmmmmmmm..."

Going with the only idea that came to my head on what to do with large gorilla corpses. I decide to see if I can zombiefy them.

I'm pretty sure there is a fungi capable of doing what I wanted, and considering Devil Fruit's non-sense, I should be able to further perfect whatever it may do to work on the corpses. I don't think they'll be that useful, but it's not like I know how to treat hunted gorilla to eat it's meat or use its fur, or like I even need the food/cloth source, so might as well do this with the corpses. Better than to just let it go wasted.

Going along with the idea, I grown two thin branches, one from each of my hand that snaked through the air and stabbed at random places of the corpses.

I closed my eyes and pictured the plant -fungi, in this case- that I desired, growing it into the corpses. Closing my eyes both to focus on the creation and to not see the shifting and twisting dead flesh.

And when I opened them-

"HOLY SH$!%*!_#(*%_!&*%!#_!(*#$_&(&)" After screaming countless obscenities, shrieking senseless sounds and then throwing up all I ate since waking up here, I did the only reasonable solution to my mistake.

With a mental order, the two monstrous abominations sped towards the sea, with far too wetly a sound for my tastes. Soon enough the two were beneath the waves and devoured by some sea monster attracted to the blood leaking from the open flesh and muscle of the abominations.

I'm never doing that again.*

At least it gave me the bonus of discovering that while I can't touch it, I can sense and control my creations even when they go under the sea.

Which I only realized the next day, when I was calmer. After creating the abominations I just finished puking, rinsed with some coconut/filtered water and went to sleep.

After tossing and turning, unable to sleep while thinking about the offense to god I had suicided into the sea, I eventually passed out.

* * *

 **1 -** "I'm never doing that again.*"

**I'm definitely doing that again.**


	4. Chapter 4

**If you've read the first draft, this isn't a new chapter, just dividing a slightly modified division of the old chapter 4 into two chapters.**

* * *

***Somewhere in the Calm Belt, almost 11 years before the start of cannon***

With all of my immediate needs secured, a reliable food and water source at hand, even having a shower, I turned to the only two things left on "Stranded on an deserted island: a guide for idiots", exploring and figuring out how to leave the island.

And then proceeded to procrastinate the hell out of it.

Still lost on who, what and where I am, somewhat afraid of getting my face broke in by three armed primates and mostly because of being lazy, I mostly just... _chilled_ this closing year.

I did some light experimenting on my powers, trying out whatever way of using said power would pop-up in my mind and practiced on my connection with the surrounding flora, especially my ability to sense the world through them.

I made a lot of discoveries about my powers during this period and bettered my sensing range and the information I could get from it, now being able to have a constant mental picture of most of the island.

It may sound impressive, especially considering that some forgotten inner self screamed at me that nothing about this was normal, but I couldn't help but think it wasn't enough.

I didn't put in enough effort to really master anything and, more importantly, I haven't left the coastline that I had woken up on, remaining in my home territory ever since that second day _fight_ against the gorillas.

It started with the idea of training up a bit of my powers, wanting to know more about them before betting my life on it against the native fauna. But with the variety of plants I could make it and their ability to modify their surroundings, I may have kinda lost track of time just relaxing in my safe zone.

A safe zone that now, after a year of -not- hard work, was a large walled section of the former beach that was now covered in expansive grasslands, with a concentration of large fruit bearing trees to the right, a gigantic tree dwarfing everything around in to the left and a large artificial lake in the middle, along with some differing trees from various experiments that were spread around sparsely.

The lake was filled with filtered sea water, brought in by a large tube like root, made much like my shower, but underground, the only indication of it in the surface being a straight line of slightly greener and taller grass.

Some smaller fish had even managed to swim through the tube into the lake, some somehow even managing to survive the change from salt to fresh water and spreading across the man-made lake. Small when in comparison with the monstrosities that I saw on my first days, most of the fish were still about the size of my torso.

Where before was a single cube, now three evenly spaced cubes sat in a triangle formation between the sea and the lake. Each cube connecting with the others through roofed wooden passageways, with a field of different colored, pleasant smelling flowers and a large tree in the middle.

Okay, I spent most of the time experimenting, lazing around and doing some tuning on my _lawn_.

Right now I was laying on a large wooden recliner covered in a cushion like moss, resting by the shore of the aforementioned lake while looking at the almost three meter long koi-eel like fish swimming in it as I sipped on my newest attempt of imitating coffee. Making a fruit with an energizing juice was easy, but I was still not getting the taste right, my surprisingly well informed amnesiac brain told me.

And I could even say I was training right now.

I was currently connected with my various plants, being practically omnipresent around the island. Seeing simultaneously as groups of the three armed gorillas played around with each other, one of said gorillas was eaten by an even larger feline with a spiked prehensile tail and various toucan like birds flocked from one tree to another pecking at fruits and each other.

It was true omnipresence, as though I was almost everywhere, I could only actually comprehend just a bit of what information I received. I'm already able to have at least an idea about the entire island and what each animal was doing if I truly focused on it, now I just need to train until I'm able to do it without a meditative trance.

So, while I saw all that through my plants, I using my actual eyes to watch as the skin on my right hand slowly grew a culture of fungi that crept up my arm and slowly covered the entire limb.

Though I did complain to myself more than once about my own laziness, I did find out plenty about my powers.

I'm able to make every type of plant and fungi I could think of, during the year I made various types of trees, flowers, herbs, mosses, cacti, algae and mushrooms, some poisonous, some even venomous.

The biting purple flowers that surrounded my beach were pretty deadly.

I had been working primarily on my sensing abilities and on creating any random type of plant I could think of, thin as hair vines, walking trees... The unfortunate attempt of creating sentient life. I would rather not think about it.

On a brighter note than the deformed monstrosity that called me father and begged me for a swift release from the pain that was existence, I've also just recently started training on growing plants directly from my skin.

I knew I could do it since the bamboo straw, but now I've been working on larger constructs and their growing speed. The exercise I was conducting now was simply growing, destroying and regrowing the fungal armor around my hands as I moved my fingers.

The armor currently didn't look much a like an armor at all. It looked more liked my skin rippled as I moved my finger, barely keeping the construct together.

I had tried a couple different types of armors and configurations. So far, my strongest one was a 15 centimeters thick living, moving plate of dark grey wood, it was at least stronger than the common rock.

No idea about its resistance compared to steel, as I had felt some minerals beneath the island through my roots, but have no idea what they were. Iron, gold, silver, copper, whateverinium, no idea what it might be or what to do with it if I mine it.

Either way, after focusing on pure stopping power, I've been trying out more inconspicuous armors, the one I'm testing right now was made from a colony of fungi that grew around my skin. It was able to take any colour and it maintained my shape, so it wouldn't even looked as if I was armored, besides some lifelessly to my eyes and expression, but most wouldn't notice.

It was a bit softer than the full greybark plate, but still resistant to most attacks. As tested by me getting wacked by an tree branch that was as thick as I'm tall at 50km/h.

Its development was going slowly, the armor was way harder to both create and maintain when moving, but I might need to do it while fighting, so creating on my moving arm was its baby steps training. Training both the speed for its creation and its strength, focusing on attempting to making the fungi culture that composed my armor harder, more resistant and compact every time I destroyed and remade it.

I knew it likely wasn't going to be my strongest armor, unlike with its fungal counterpart, I hadn't felt a thing when wacked by the same branch with the greybark full plate, but I wanted it for its comfort and lightness. The greybark was kinda itchy...

I was also training on growing ever stronger bark as a long term project, but that was going slowly, creating a rock solid bark was surprisingly easy, but improving from my initial limit was harder.

Anyways! The main point of all this monologue, the single undeniable truth right now! I'm bored, very bored.

I've been training in the same things, in the same place for too long, I needed a change of scenery, an epic adventure. I would explore the island today! With my own eyes instead of the somehow both vague and far more detailed picture that I get through the plants.

Getting up before this sudden surge of motivation left me, I gathered basket v.2, that was resting by the recliner, and moved towards the woods.

Basket v.2 -despite the name- is not actually a basket, being a large, thick coat/cape made up of branches, vines, grass and some fruits. I draped it over me and it automatically snugged in, the roots growing slightly over my shirt and exposed skin to hold itself on.

It was easier to carry around the more compact living coat than the original rectangular basket, and it carried around the same number of fruit inside its vines that the basket had.

It also helpful in a fight, as I had found out that it's both quicker and less energy expensive to grow from a preexisting plant than to create a whole new one, and I've been compressing and compacting vines around the coat to the point I rarely need to grow anything at all for a fight. Which really helps me, as it takes almost no energy to control previously grown plants, just some concentration.

Arriving at the section of short walls that was directed at the inland island's forest, the doorless walls opened up for me to leave.

Passing the walls that closed behind me, I glanced at the line of large purple flowers resting by the wall as I passed by. Each flower had five wide petals covered in small, stout spikes filled with venom, all laying above green, thorny semi-spheres sticking out the ground, spheres that were actually really long vines rolled in on themselves.

My actual wall against the wildlife of the island.

Going through my first and greatest line of defense, I was once more out of the safe zone to try and explore the island, after almost one full year of pushing it away.

I knew the time because one of the many experiment created was a tree that changed the shape of it's branches with each day cycle. It was created after 8 day cycles in the island, and now it's branches are shaped like 319. Thus, I have been here for 327 days.

Stopping just before the start of the native vegetation, I closed my eyes and once more connected with my plants, focusing on the roots around the island.

Though I had restrained myself and the trees I had created to the coastline I had woken up in, the same couldn't be said to my roots.

Wanting to have protection on and knowledge of the whole island I had let my attack roots continue to spread and grow as they had been, only now connected to and completely sustained by a single, ever-growing tree.

Despite the fact that the tree where all roots meet stood at the edge of the sea line half into the sea half in the grass land beach, its roots had already reached almost all corners of the islands. Just missing a bit of the other corner of the island, but it's getting there.

The tree itself is a still growing titan, already towering far over all of the island original century old vegetation.

Its wide canopy cast a shadow over all of the colonized coastline, made up of branches larger than most trees, each of them full of vibrant, wide green leaves. Already reaching into a good part of the sea in front of it and almost half of the native jungle. The canopy already covered the whole occupied coast-line and, if it continued to grow as it has, it would soon cover the whole island.

Its roots growing along the sea line had even begun to slowly add more surface land to the island.

Through this extensive and growing network of roots I could roughly "sense" what is going on throughout the entire island. It's difficult to explain, the sensing is a strange mixture of hearing, feeling and tasting what's going on.

Using it, I sensed around the forest before me. I could _see_ various troops of the three armed gorillas that I had met, even if not the top of the food chain, they dominated the local wildlife, spread all over the island. Tending to stay high up the canopies of the large trees of the jungle, unlike a normal gorilla's behaviour of staying mostly on the ground.

I also got used to ignoring the question that still rages on the back of my mind of _'why the hell I know how a gorilla is supposed to act, but not my name?!'_ Okay, maybe it still frustrates me a bit.

Ignoring the many groups of gorillas, and definitely ignoring the five felines three times the size of the gorillas just a few minutes away, I decided to go towards a close-by piece fauna that -hopefully- won't try to kill me.

There was a small group of toads around a small clearing about ten/twenty minutes walking, they were large compared to a regular sized toad but small compared to the island's regulars. It seemed like a good enough place to start.

Opening my physical eyes, I took my first step and was off on an adventure.

It was nice, though there was some dense forestry in the fruit tree area of my beachhead, there was something different about walking in the more primordial native jungle.

Pushing hanging vines by hand, dodging growing roots and trying not to stumble in the uneven ground as I kept walking. I could of course order the surrounding original trees with a quick touch, but it was a nice addition to the walk.

After almost twenty minutes of walking, seeing nothing but vegetation (not by accident, I had made a conscious effort to avoid the large felines that I had sensed before),I finally reached the clearing.

It was an oval clearing in the dense jungle, a bit larger than the one holding the poneglyph, with something between a pond and a lake in the middle of it, five of the toads I had sensed visible by it. The rest were spread around close by.

One of the visible three was siting still just in front of me, half of its body submerged, head and antennae poking out of the water.

So I decided to do the second oldest thing that humans do to animals, just after eating. Bother them for no rational reason.

Moving to the the small pond, I glanced at my reflection for a second. Long, uncut brown hair with dark brown eyes and a shaggy, clearly unkempt beard. Anything between early twenties to early thirties.

Then turned back towards my new companion.

"Hello."

"GROAH!" It greeted me in return.

It was an ugly thing, with a stout, blueish gray body, six eyes and two strange antennae, each pointing at a different direction.

"Aren't you a cute little thing." I lied to my first company after a full year of just plants.

"GROAH" It thanked me for the kind compliment, I'm sure.

"Boop." I sounded out, lightly touching the snoot of the toad.

Some physical contact, after a year of none and no memories of any. It felt surprisingly good, despite it being with just a toad.

"GROOOOAH" then my companion betrayed me and exploded in a green cloud that quickly covered the surroundings.

Breathing in instinctively, the last things I managed to understand before passing out was the grounding opening up as my roots moved to encircle me and my bowels completely giving up.

"Shit."

* * *

**It dragged on way more than I expected, so I'm dividing the 4 years of training into three chapters. This one will cover the first year and the basic training on the powers, the next will cover getting in shape and learning how to fight.**


	5. Chapter 5

**If you've read the first draft, THIS IS NOT A NEW CHAPTER. I just divided a slightly modified chapter 4 into two chapters. Actual chapter 5, now chapter 6, is out though.**

* * *

** *Somewhere in the Calm Belt, 10 years and six months before cannon* **

After that disaster of a wild-life encounter, I woke up about two weeks later having learned three things.

First, that I can sink into my plants, as I woke up inside a large root around the same spot I that had collapsed at. I deny any accusation that I panicked on waking up on a completely dark place with pressure all around me (did not impede my movements though).

Second, that sinking into plants helped me heal, as while trying to figure out why my roots had absorbed me in I tested a theory by making a small cut in my arm, it healed in under a minute with the arm inside a tree. Helps remove poisonous substances too, as the roots I had awoken in were a nasty green/purple and I felt great, nothing like as if I had just inhaled a cloud of toad poison.

And third, and this was one that should've been obvious in the first place, that I shouldn't bother unknown animals in a strange jungle for no reason... or that I should've at least poked it with a branch from a kilometer away before booping it.

Well, hindsight is 20/20.

After three more weeks of procrastinating, mostly settling my stomach after whatever that cloud was and stretching my muscles after the two week coma, I finally started getting productive again.

Deciding to forgo the native forest for a bit after my two not really pleasant experiences with it, I decided to explore the only other biome of the island. Which is basically a more flowery way to say that I started taking long walks along the beach.

The simple rush of exercise was still pleasant after the long stretches of absolutely nothing that I had done for most of the one and a half year of life that I remember. Thus, walks turned into runs, which turned to strangely acrobatic maneuvers on the sand.

After 6 months of exponentially growing cardio sessions and some more experimenting/training with my powers -mastered growing vegetation through my body at least-, _it_ happened once more.

The bane of being stranded without internet, I became very, _very_ bored.

And being _very_ bored has the weird tendency of giving birth to the most idiotic of decisions. Thus, here I am, once again at border of the natural forest, about to do something stupid.

Standing in the shade of the gigantic tree that connected all of my roots together, a tree that now covered almost half of the original jungle under its ever-growing canopy, I once more doubted my moronic idea.

It had started with me trying to pump myself up for another exploration, but somehow the simple of thought of "I control pretty much all the vegetation around, that's 90% of the island surface, I can't be scared of some animals" changed into "let's fist fight a three armed gorilla". As I said, not the brightest idea.

But it should be fine, I could easily kill it with my plants and I now keep a constant living armor of fungi around me that even a large boulder falling from a large tree's height couldn't crack -I had tried it- , even if I couldn't beat it, I'm sure I can at least surely survive it.

Sighing, I massaged my temples as I attempted, not for the first time, to stop such idiotic line of thought.

Unfortunately, every attempt ended with the thought of "Hey, at least it'll be fun".

Giving up on a rational line of thought, I decided to stop thinking about it and go find myself a gorilla.

Now not even needing to stop and focus, I sensed through my plants and followed a gorilla that was separated from its troop, moving deeper into the jungle.

Bypassing some full groups of the primates and two murder cats, I finally reached a lone gorilla in the jungle.

It was mid way up a tree, eating a strange pineapple looking fruit that was rather common around the isle. Okay, now, how do I start a fight with a gorilla?

"Hey!... wanna fight?" I first yell at the gorilla then finish in a whisper as I realise mid-phrase that I have no clue how to trash talk an ape.

It did not even look at my direction.

Sighing for what felt like the eightieth time today, with barely a thought one of the countless (31.388) roots spread throughout the island connected with the tree the gorilla was currently resting on, giving me control over it.

The thick branch the primate was holding suddenly moved as if clay, melting away under the gorilla's grip, who then fell from the tree with a startled shriek.

I wanted to say a smart one liner or a pun before the start of the fight, but either it knew I was the reason of its fall or it just wanted to kill something and I was the closest thing breathing nearby, because as soon as it got up the beast charged towards me.

I had to hold back my roots from instinctively impaling the beast, that wasn't the purpose of this.

Unfortunately, the gorilla crossed the distance between us in the time it took for me to do that, so I was barely able to start turning my head to look at my opponent before a hand almost the size of my torso threw me at the closest tree.

The armor proved its use. Though I had a headache, I had hardly felt that punch compared to my first threerilla hand to the face experience.

As soon as I started to get up, I had King Kong's three armed dwarf cousin all over me. With me managing to remove my head from the ground just in time for a closed fist to send it back in. I tried to roll away, but a punch to the gut put me back into the tree.

I kept trying to get up, but the gorilla going ape above me wasn't helping.

Eventually giving up on getting up on muscles alone, a group of vines grew from the tree I had been thrown into and quickly stretched to hold off the primate.

"Haaaaaah" I sounded out, trying to stop the pounding still ringing in my head to and to focus my vision to force the eight copies of gorillas back into one being. The first one wasn't helped by the constant loud shrieks of the gorilla struggling against the vines holding it above me.

Still, though my head was spinning and everything hurt like all hells, I'm sure that it would've popped off without the armor. So I can cross, test armor effectiveness, out of the to do list if nothing else.

When the world finally stopped doing flips, I turned to my hanging foe.

"Let's try this again."

With a thought, the vines released the gorilla, which turned mid-air, falling on all fours, the third arm on its back pointed menacingly at me.

In a second it was in front of me, left arm swinging, a voice in the back of my head, strangely similar to how I felt while sensing through my plants, _told_ me how dodge.

Following it, I dove to the left, but the gorilla turned faster than I could exploit the opening, catching me with a right arm to the torso sending me back to the ground.

Rolling away before it managed to go ape on me again, I began to get up before falling on my ass to avoid a right cross that would've sent me flying.

Jumping backwards from my fallen position, I barely managed to dodge two more punches while stumbling to try and find my equilibrium.

The third punch got to me, sending me once again flying at the nearest tree.

This time I wasn't able to roll away fast enough, the ape reaching my fallen form and managing nine punches before I gave up on getting up fairly and had my vines hold it off again.

"Huuuurgh."

Getting up from my fallen fetal position, I half tried to stretch, before the ache everywhere force my to pull my members in.

"You certainly hit hard." I say to my sparring buddy.

"HU, HUAAAAAARGH!" It answered back, still struggling desperately against its bonds.

"Ah, relax, relax, I'll let you down in a minute" I said before closing my eyes. Gathering myself for a minute, I got up with another "huuuurgh" of exertion.

"Okay, okay..." I repeated trying to stay on my feet. Finally able to move without feeling like I was going to collapse, I turned to the now giving up or tiring out gorilla.

"Well, thanks for the... sparring" _beatdown_ "Let's do it again sometime." With that I turned and left, stumbling away from the clearing.

A non-fruit bearing tree nearby mutated and began producing some extra-nutritional variation of the pineapple like fruit that were a favorite of the gorillas. The vines would release it as soon as I got a bit farther from it, so I might as well pay it for the training session.

Stumbling through the woods, too tired to avoid any local fauna, I just ordered the flora to push anything away, making a straight path to my place.

Normally, losing and managing to escape alive but hurt from a gorilla would be a lesson on itself, it should highlight the stupidity of my decision and convince me to never repeat it. Or maybe cause me to dread it with some resignation if I was determined to learn how to fist fight gorillas for whatever reason.

Unfortunately, I felt like neither of those options, I just couldn't stop grinning.

I don't know if it's because it was the first really heart pumping thing that I had done on the island, but the little dodging that I had managed to do was the most exhilarating thing I remember doing in forever, I don't know if it's the isolation talking or if I just don't remember that I'm actually a battle nut.

My muscles ached, my lungs burned and my head swirled, but I loved it.

I'd mostly gotten beaten up, but the tension, the exhilarating feeling of barely dodging the attack, the expectation when I thought I could land one single attack myself. Fighting was surprisingly fun.

Reaching my safe zone, I stumbled past the walls, made a cushioned recliner in front of me and fell face first into it, feeling it mold itself around me. The plants latching and growing onto my skin, connecting me to the extensive and growing network of vegetation and helping speed along my already unnaturally fast healing.

Still grinning, I couldn't remove a single thought from my head.

"Can't wait to try it again tomorrow"

** -2nd Attempt- **

Finding the same gorilla again wasn't hard, it was almost in the exact same spot, seemingly storing one of the pineapple like fruit in a tree three trees to the right of the one that it had been at yesterday. I had felt some small concentration of fruits near the gorilla troops, it was nice to know why.

Also nice to know that it seemed that my sparring partner liked to stay away from groups of others of the same species. It made things easier for me.

Making use of the respite of it not noticing me, I took the time to actually observe it.

It was about as tall as most of the gorillas, something between two and three of me laying down, but it was a scarred thing, full of furless patches, where fur wouldn't grow back above the scarred skin. Seemed old too, with some gray among it's maroon fur.

I would have no idea about its sex, as nothing was visible that could identify it. But -unfortunately- the senses given to me through the plants made it far more clear than I wanted that it was a male.

Done observing my opponent and growing restless with the memory of the heart (and general body) pounding of yesterday, I decided to try something different.

I attacked, though I used the term loosely, I ran the distance between me and -as now identified- him while screaming like a lunatic. About as loudly but much slower than him covering a similar distance yesterday.

The primate turned with the quickness that I had come to expect of his kind, despite his size and apparent age, jumping from the tree, landing fine and running despite the rather large fall, meeting me midway.

It met me with a running upper cut to my general torso, listening to what could be instinct, my plants or haki, I managed to dodge its first attack, slide sideways and land a -way too awkward to have any weight to it- punch to its side.

Any high I might've got from the small victory of landing my first -useless- attack was gone as the forgotten third back arm literally held me by my head and threw me at the nearest tree.

Somewhat more ready for it this time, I softened the tree to the point that -along with my armor- I didn't even feel the collision.

Falling from the tree feet first just in time to barely duck a punch, I still couldn't react in time for the kick which caught me right in the face and buried it in the fortunately still soft tree.

Any respite I might have had from the fact that the tree was basically a large pillow was taken away by the prehensile foot grabbing hold of my head, ripping me from the pillow tree and in a surprisingly acrobatic movement the gorilla cartwheeled, burying my face into the still hard ground.

I'm sure that anyone normal would've had a concussion by now, and there was an annoying ringing in my ear, but my armor had let me get out of it mostly fine.

My foe was determined to change that, throwing me a bit ahead and then pouncing before I could hope to react.

Between its 15-20th punch I managed to be conscious enough to change the stand by orders of my plants, a roots surging from besides me a second later surrounding and lifting the ape about 10 meters from the ground, giving me time to breath.

"Argh, that didn't work out as I hoped. About what I expected though." I muttered to myself while panting.

"HRIAAAAARGH!"

"Hm, yes, quite."

With that out of the way, I moved to get up- and promptly collapsed back in the ground. _'Uuuuuurg, everything hurt.'_

Though it was mostly whole, there were some cracks on the armor, that gorilla hit hard. I'm pretty sure that he hits much harder than my two temporary fungi zombies did before they were zombiefied.

"Guess this is all for today, big guy."

"HRUUUUUUAAAAAAARH!"

"Yeah, I know it, was kind of short, I'll probably be up tomorrow. See you then!"

Smiling at the responding shriek, saying his heartfelt "Until then!", I'm sure, I focused for a second.

A root burst from the ground directly beneath me, lifting me up it scurried back home. As I was carried away, another cluster of super-nutritious pineapple look alike formed on the tree that my sparring buddy had been staying in.

Closing my eyes and collapsing into the root (literally), I drifted into sleep.

** -11th attempt- **

I jumped to the side as a fist larger than my head passed by where I once stood. Then I hooked my foot around my opponent's ankle and tried kicking forward, my enemy stumbled, but he didn't fall, his third arm reaching for my head and forcing me to stumble backwards to evade it.

Knowing that if I gave him space he would just charge in faster than I could make room, I charged forward myself, ducking underneath a wild swing, I managed to enter his guard to land a punch inside his armpit.

One that, for a change, it appeared to be felt by my sparring partner, as the ape gave a loud shriek in a higher pitch than normal and, for the first time since these fights have started, took a step back.

Unfortunately, being so stunned over my own achievement of actually making my sparring buddy flinch, I wasn't able to react and for that step back he took six more forwards, towards me.

Frozen for a second, I could nothing but brace before the ape shoulder tackled me, then ran me over.

Before I could recuperate from being stampeded, he reached down, grabbing me by my leg and swinging me at a nearby tree as I was a baseball bat and it owed him money. I was unfortunately too distracted to turn soft or merge into the tree.

Before he could remove me from the almost broken in half tree and swing me again, roots surge from the ground and restrained the Kong jr.

Released, I fall face first into the ground, groaning from the increasingly familiar ache.

"Ah, think that's about it for today. What do you think?"

"Hu! Huuuaaarh!" He answered back enraged. Before gradually fighting back a bit less against the roots, the shrieks weren't as loud.

"Yeah, my bad at ending, got too distracted. But I got you there this time, eh? Eh?"

I swear the shriek back was annoyed.

** -25th attempt- **

I leaned to the side, using both of my hands to push a me sized arm slightly to the left.

Ducking my head under the third arm attempt of grabbing me, I kicked the back of my opponent's knee. He stumbled forward, lowering his head enough that I can actually land a large swing at his face.

It wasn't the first proper punch that I had landed, but I'm sure that it was the most effective so far, as the gorilla fell for the first time since these battles started.

Thankfully my experience allowed me not to freeze this time, jumping backwards as soon as the punch landed. Which was good, as the third arm swung around blindly just after I had done so.

Though he fell forward, it still did not make much difference, and the ape turned to face me before I even landed on the ground.

I was able to brace myself for the shoulder tackle this time, going flying, correcting myself mid-air and landing on my feet.

But, focused on landing, I wasn't able to react to the following punch to the torso that almost folded me in half, then I barely managed to dodge the subsequent fist to the head.

I tried jumping forward through his guard to get behind him, like before, but the gorilla was prepared this time. The third arm caught me as I slid under the punch, it held both of my -comparatively- tiny arms and swung me straight up.

There was a brief sensation of weightlessness and flying. It was nice. Then a hand almost the size of my torso pulled me down and a now familiar beating proceeded for half a minute, before I gave up and the roots lifted my opponent away.

I guess the roots are becoming familiar to him by now too, as he just huffs and waits in there. I swear that huff sounded smug though.

** -44th attempt- **

The gorilla quickly put his arm to the side of his head, defending himself from the flying kick followed by a scream of "Dynamic Entry!" that started today's bout.

I was thrown to the side when he raised his arm, but managed to twist mid air and land feet first on a tree close by, using it to once again jet myself at him. Not expecting the quick second offense, he wasn't able to put up a defense, and took two full flying feet to the face.

As the gorilla stumbled backwards, I fell to ground and rushed forward, a heavy stamp to his foot keeping him in place for the one second I needed to throw a proper punch at his face.

Unfortunately, though he couldn't react he had been ready for it. The gorilla took the punch straight on, barring through and coming at me open mouth to the throat.

It wasn't the first time he tried to make me dinner. Once those huge, way too pointy for a herbivore teeth had almost broken through my armor.

But I was also ready this time, ducking under his head and landing a somewhat awkward punch to his lower torso, he probably didn't feel it, but at least I hit him while he missed.

I half dodged, half blocked the counter kick, jumping backwards in an awkward position while blocking said kick with both arms.

Couldn't block the following punch though, or the subsequent one from the third back arm, the two rapid sequence punches left me stunned, enough for my primate opponent to send a swinging right arm that knocked me off my feet.

Stunned and down, I couldn't react as he grasped my head and most upper torso with one hand, lifted me up and then proceeded to bury me halfway underground.

Before it could continue with whatever it was it had planned, one of the roots encircled it. Another pushing me from my half buried position.

"Ahhh, not this time too I guess."

A still rather smug huff answered.

** -55th attempt- **

I walked through the woods with my eyes closed and my hands behind my head.

The strange, primal and full of odd animals woods that so scared me during my first year in this island had lost much of its mystery with me taking regular walks through it to fight with my gorilla buddy.

These days most of my cardio sessions are runs through it, no longer the beach... Mostly because of that one time that I attempted a somersault in the sand and accidentally landed up to my waist in sea water and almost drowned... again.

Still, now I was taking a leisure walk to the fight's clearing, cooling down a bit after said cardio section took me in a run through most of the island.

With my eyes closed, I felt as the paws softly landed one after the other as the long feline body almost slid through the forest in my direction.

No longer really concerned about it, already used to fighting giant animals after so many battles during my gorilla challenge and now with a solid belief in my plants ability to save my ass, I slow down a bit my walk and wait as the predator crept closer.

After a few minutes of waiting it slowly creep closer, the giant cat jumped through the bushes in flash.

Reacting with instincts trained by constant fights with a faster opponent, I turned, grabbing both sides of the open jaws of the feline, my armor making sure the teeth didn't puncture anything, holding it by its jaw, I turned the feline mid air and slammed its back against a nearby tree.

Punching its belly with all my might before it fell from the tree it was now embedded in, I could almost literally see the cat's eye bulging out, the breath leaving it as he fell to the ground.

It curled in itself and tried to stumble away after it, looking warily at me.

I did nothing as it slowly put distance between us, a bit stupefied it was so easy to take on the cat, it seemed a bit small compared to most other specimens around the island, but it was still the apex predator around... How the hell I haven't beaten that gorilla yet?

** -63th attempt- **

It was once more time for time for the almost always bidiurnal sparring match.

I had healed up from the wounds of the previous one and was ready to try again.

Currently I was stretching back at my coast before going to seek out my sparring buddy. And technically only friend, as I didn't remember anyone else and he was the only non-floral life form that I saw on a daily basis.

I had just finished the last lap around the island, both to work out and get myself fired up, and was now ready for my second exercise of the day.

Getting up, I moved towards the native jungle for the battle of the day, passing through the small but dense forest of fruit bearing jungle that stood in the way. Ignoring the birds flying around and pecking me, my wood armor both making me not feel it and making some small berry like fruits for them to take.

They were the toucan like birds that I had seen around most of the island. They had the shape of a toucan, only they were a bit bigger than my torso and came in various colors, from blue, to green, brown, purple and red. With the beak always being a bright yellow.

My newest companions in this isle moved into the free source of fruits that was this small magically made jungle about half way through my second year here. The forest being the result of various fruit-related experiments he had made and gathered mostly for practicality.

They were annoying, had a tendency to attack anything that wasn't themselves and their sounds sounded like slightly, just slightly, quieter fire alarms.

Still, they were the only life form around besides the murder cats, the gorillas and those damn toads. Might as well get along with them... Even it was likely that they were the only birds on the isle because they killed all the competition.

Well, anyway, they were still weak enough that their pecks didn't hurt through my armor and they seemed smart enough not to get directly in front of me after I made roasts out of the few who tried pecking my face.

The armor might make it not hurt, but those screaming fire alarms flopping around in front of my face were both annoying and just volunteering to help test this vague idea on how to best prepare chicken that I had in my amnesiac mind.

It was helpful, I discovered both that I knew how to prepare chicken (and similar birds) and that I could make a variety of spices by _wishing_ the flavors.

Exiting the lunch-jungle while munching on a large purple fruit that tasted like chocolate, I quickly crossed the border of my safezone. Which was now made of a larger and all green wall, composed no longer of wood, but solely of hair thin, rock strong vines coiled on themselves. A line of purple flowers still in front of it.

In a few more steps I was back into native jungle.

The flock of angry birds gave up on the pecking and returned to the fruit jungle about then.

It took about 10/15 minutes to reach the usual sparring place. I had made it a small clearing recently, moving or removing a few trees to make a more open space. Fortunately, my friend was stubborn enough to remain by his trees -that I left untouched- despite the unexplained change of scenery.

Arriving at my self made clearing, instead of the common sight of a way too lazy gorilla either chilling or eating out of the stock of my super pineapple look alikes, I found a wounded and still bleeding gorilla and a dead feline on the floor.

The feline was a purplish black panther, but with a wider head and a plated, prehensile tail. It was larger older and more robust than the one that attacked me that one time.

Strange, could swear those were typically three times the size of the gorillas, but him and my sparring partner were pretty even in height.

Rushing to my training buddy/unwilling friend, I landed in a crouch besides him. On the run over I had already verified he was alive through my plants, now I needed to heal him... Somehow.

Having no idea on how to heal others, with my only knowledge of medicine being that sticking myself into a root helps me, I start encircling him in a cocoon of vines grown from my arm.

Focusing on it closing his wounds, giving him energy and nutrients, basically telling my plants to close any wounds and pump him full of anything beneficial to him around my roots, be in the ground, air or sea. Basically, I was steroiding the death out of the gorilla.

After an unknown amount of time later, I wasn't counting, I realized that my patient woke up as it started squirming inside the vines.

Releasing it, I jumped back in time to avoid the rather slow fist of my injured "friend".

The fist was rather slower than normal and it was made obvious why when I look at its owner.

Though the larger wounds were closed and the bleeding stopped, the gorilla still had various smaller wounds around his body and many new scars added to the already vast old collection.

"Ah, just lay down, will ya? We're not fighting with you like this"

He, of course, didn't understand me, struggling to stay standing straight, he took a single loose step in my direction, then brace himself against the tree behind him not to fall on his face.

I plopped down besides the tree he was leaning against, a cushion of grass/moss and the back of a chair forming to make it more comfortable.

Not like I had anything to fear, I could already at least react to any move he made and my plants could stop him at anytime and would've reflexively killed him if I wasn't consciously restricting them while fighting. And that was when he didn't looked about ready to keel over.

He stared down at me, it might've been a bit more scary if he didn't do it every time we fought and if he wasn't visibly fighting not to pass out.

"Just sit down you lug, ya gonna reopen your wounds and I'm letting them bleed you to exhaustion if you do it."

Don't know if he understood anything from my tone or my actual words, but he stumbled two trees away from me and collapsed to the ground.

"Paranoid ape." I grumbled, rolling my eyes at the distance made.

With a quick thought, a thin patch of grass started growing from the ground up his skin. He startled for a second, trying to get up too quick, causing him to visibly wince and fall back to the ground.

Guess by the time he gathered his wits back he realized the grass was soothing his pain.

The medi-gel producing roots from earlier closed most wounds, stopped the bleeding and administered some general anesthetic.

This thin grass was an older invention of mine, it's both a anesthetic and a relaxant. Basically a narcotic, it should help keep him calm as his wounds finish closing up.

"Eeeerrgh..." he sounded out in a tired mumbling.

"Well, at least the other guy looks worse off." I comforted him, looking at the feline corpse with its too wide of a head caved in.

"Hueerh..."

"Hahahaha... I swear you sound prideful!" I laughed while leaning into my chair.

"Hurff."

"You know, we've been doing this for almost a year already, it was the fastest it went by since I got to the island" I mused it out loud to the slowly passing out gorilla "I guess time flies when you're having fun..."

"Hu..."

"You should have a name you know, can't just keep calling you gorilla." though I when I turned to him, he was already passed out from a mix of his wounds and the anesthetics.

"Yeah, see ya tomorrow...Bob." I said closing my eyes. I suck at naming, and the only other one that I came up with was McGorillaface, I hope he appreciates that I went with the less idiotic option.

Since I was woken up by my plants stopping a punch inches from my face, with the usual spar starting seconds later, I guess that he didn't.

** -76th attempt- **

I blocked a swing to the side of my head, the weight of the punch making me stumble sideways but I still had enough footing to dodge under the following swing.

Inside the gorilla's guard, a open palm to the chin closed his open shrieking mouth with a loud thud, he wincing and stumbling back as a result.

Continuing the assault, I followed the stumbling primate, a punch to the lower stomach forcing his head down enough for me the reach with both feet planted on the ground, a hard punch throwing his head backwards.

A lot changed in this almost full year of fighting, one of those things was that it no longer could just brush of my punches.

I blocked the wide swing of his left hand, pushing it down, dodging under the following right and kicking the side of his knee before he could properly recover.

Kneeling, I was more was able to reach Bob's head, and once more delivered a hard punch now to the other side of his face.

Barely blocking the third arm that came to knock me away, the power of the swing still knocking me far from the gorilla, giving him the seconds needed to recover and come charging at me.

Jumping to the side, I managed to dodge his charge and charge back, the back arm swinging around wildly, hoping stop any possible attacks to the rear.

I dodged the first swing, jumping over the next one in a way that I stood over the 4 to six meters tall primate, twisting mid air to hit it with a spinning closed back hand to the ear.

Luckily it hit, disorienting my opponent enough for me to fall to the ground before the gorilla swatted me out the air.

Taking the opening from the loss of balance caused by the hit to the head, I charged him, dodging under a swiping blow, inside his guard I punched at the side of his knee, forcing him to fall into one knee, once again bringing his head into my range, which I hit with a spinning elbow.

Bob stumbled backwards, I quickly followed after him, hitting three consecutive heavy punch to the ribs, forced to stop to block a hit that would've got me in the head, not being able to block the subsequent upper that caught me right in the chin.

Sent literally flying, I tried to settle my head before hitting the ground, managing to do so and see the fist ready to hit me as gravity brought me down.

Twisting awkwardly mid-air, I managed to dodge the fist, landing heavily on my side.

Ignoring the slight pain and unbalance from the fall, I jumped up, dodging the hammer blow where I was fallen, landing on my feet and leaning backwards to avoid the third arm attempt at a grab.

A kick to head sent Bob, still kneeling from the failed hammer blow, falling to his ass on the ground.

Before he could react I jumped forward, knees first, each knee hitting the shoulder joint of the gorilla, my momentum and weight pulling him down, landing with me mounted on his chest.

I started hammering blows before he could react, managing to push away the weak punches Bob managed to throw in his awkward position and arms semi restrained. After something between the 15th or 20th punch, Bob stopped struggling.

I stopped for a second, waiting for him to throw me off and start the fight again. After almost a minute of silence, I accepted that Bob really was unconscious, that I had actually won.

"Ha... hahaha... hahahaha"

Rolling from the immobile primate, I fall to the ground besides it laughing in joy at my first victory, a screen of vines and grass already starting on covering both me and Bob for healing.

"Ah, 75 to 1 now." I say before passing out.

** -117nd fight- (almost 9 years before cannon starts) **

After my first victory, it started getting kinda easy to defeat Bob. 75 to 1 quickly became 79 to 25, that's when I decided to start fighting without the armor or any other use of my powers.

It was difficult for a time, the hits I had grown used to suddenly hurt way more than remembered, 79 to 25, becoming 92 to 25. But eventually...

I jumped over the punch that broke and sank into the tree behind, using Bob's arm as a stepping stone I launched myself over to his head, grabbing his neck and doing a move that would doRandy Orton proud, twisting mid air while still holding his neck and burying the gorilla's head into the ground.

I landed on my feet, tense while looking into Bob's prone body for a minute. After a moment of silence and quietness.

"YES!" I scream with my hands to sky, collapsing to the ground a second later, covered in bruises slowly disappearing with this bullshit healing.

With this I had my first victory without any advantage from my powers. The feeling of fulfillment was even a bit greater than the last time when I got my first victory, period.

And this time I wasn't injured enough to pass out, so I made my excitement known with a totally cool and choreographed dance over the clearing, not just screaming yes while thrusting my hips to the air of course.

A grunt woke me from my commemoratory trance, turning to see Bob getting up while holding his head.

"Huuuurgh"

"Hahaha, great match, eh? Eh? Eh?"

Bob pushed my head away, annoyed with the repeated elbow pokes.

"Oi, don't be a sore loser, I took my 87 losses like a champ."

I ignored the judging eyes that were clearly reminding me of having roots that stop any serious injuries (on both of us, it's not that much cheating...) and a _miiiinor_ breakdown on my 20th consecutive loss.

"Bah, don't be like that. Come on, I've been testing this one out for some time, let's celebrate."

With that a small stump of a tree grew from the ground between us, two large fruits growing from it.

I walked to it, grabbed both, and plopped down besides Bob, who was sitting covered in the healing grass and vines that should be familiar to him by now.

Seated besides the gorilla cousin with gigantism the size difference was never more obvious, at least three times taller and two times more robust than me.

I had by now realized Bob seemed larger than any other gorilla on the island, a quick comparison with the other gorillas I could sense/see/hear through my plants made that pretty clear.

My only idea on why, is it resulting from my nutrient bomb fruits that he's been eating since the spars started, and/or the root treatment. He wasn't like that at the beginning, I looked for a normal gorilla to get beat up by while I was an amateur.

Bob grunted and tried to take the fruit from my hand, I dodged and pushed his hand away.

"This ain't the normal stuff, you gotta go slowly."

It was true, rather the super nutritional mix, this was a result of one of my various casual attempts at alcoholic and narcotic plants. There were worse ones, but this version still packed quite the punch.

Handing the fruit to the disgruntled primate, I interrupted with a shove before Bob could take his first bite. Holding out my fruit in front of me.

"Kanpai!" I recited from my memories of One Piece.

After dodging multiple attempts of fruit theft, Bob finally understood that he was supposed to hit his fruit against mine. He did not look impressed with the tradition that stopped him from eating the moment he got the fruit.

Thus, after three years stranded, I had my first party in this strange island, getting drunk on fruits with a three armed gorilla.

* * *

**Just wanted a somewhat realistic scene on learning how to fight, no idea how it became so long or where the gorilla came from. Bob may be the first crew member or may be removed, I'll think on it later, just wanted to release something this week.**

**MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION EVER: I used the classic "hahaha" since I couldn't think of one. But should the character have a strange One Piece laugh? And, if so, how should it be?**


	6. Chapter 6

**As always, if you could point out grammar or sentencing mistakes, it really helps. I don't have a beta and am very lazy.**

* * *

** *An undiscovered island at the Calm Belt, almost 8 years before canon* **

With my eyes closed I focused on my surroundings, seeing the world through the sense of the grass, the trees and the thousands of roots spread across the island beneath me.

Connecting to every tree, bush, mushroom, any floral or fungal liferom really, a vast network of interconnected roots, vines, colonies allowed me to _see_ the entire island, through countless eyes, both far more blind and far more capable then what should be humanly possible.

Seated on the coastline I felt the entire ecosystem around me move and grow.

The constant slow growth of each leave and tree, the surprisingly chirpy grow of fungi colonies, and through them I could also _see_ the actions of the animals that made that ecosystem their home.

The blood seeping into the surface running roots as a large panthertail ate an unfortunate packless threerilla, the sex of eighteen gorillas apparently in an orgy and the deathtoad currently taking a crap by shitting out literally almost its entire digestive track... It's not always a great ability.

But ignoring that, I focused on another panthertail, one that was creeping by, slowly and quietly getting ever close to my resting spot.

Panthertail being my uncreative name for the way too long and flat faced panther analogues. Because of their prehensile, bony tails.

This one didn't seem very old, still had some room left to grow, she was healthy and somewhat hungry, my tree senses told me.

As she passed beneath the branch I was resting on, I sank into it, falling on the other side, turning mid air as I fell, I landed on the feline's back, arms around her neck.

She trashed for about a second, during said time I twisted myself out of her back, swinging the panther through the air as I did, a perhaps unnecessary cartwheel ending with me on my feet and lifeless feline's twisted neck on my shoulder.

With the hunt dealt with, I carried the corpse of the panther on one shoulder while making my way back "home".

Once more, I was at a dangerous edge of boredom. Though I had finished having a constant mental map of Island long before, I finished physically exploring all of it and fighting everything in it not long ago, and now there was nothing interesting here. Besides the poneglyph, but staring at it really isn't helping me understand it.

I kept myself busy experimenting for while. Finished working on the armor -with the fungi armor having the best defense/mobility/comfort ratio so far and being constantly on- and worked on various other, less used experiments. Not all of them worked out, we don't about Jr, my attempt at creating a sentient plant.

But now, once again completely bored and still not finished with my moving plans, I decided to once again work on something that I had promised myself and whatever gods are out there that I would never do it again. Zombiefying.

All of my attempts at creating a sentient plant have failed so far, most ending up as just a greenish amorphous goo, a few actually having a general shape and sentience, which proved that it was possible, but they ended up the worst off, berserkers, being living in constant pain, whatever that twisting thing had been.

So, with no new ideas there, I decided to try my hand at zombiefying, seeing if it helps. It was definitely possible, so might as well see if I can't create a stable sentient plant using a preexisting body as a template.

Also, I haven't managed to get the texture of my meat-fruits quite right, so I can take some of that for those experiments... they are pretty futile, but as aforementioned, I am bored.

As I was thinking on this, a small -for the island- toad jumped in the path in front of me.

The silence stretched for a tense moment, I tightened my hold on the dead murdercat's neck and fell into a ready stance, staring seriously at my opponent, who "Groah"ed at me.

Though I explored the whole island, fighting and eating one of each specimen of fauna of it, there was one thing I haven't been able to beat yet, my true arch-nemesis, the deathtoad.

And it wasn't for a lack of trying there. I had created innumerable toxic and poisonous plants of slightly growing intensity and took them in ever increasing doses since my first encounter with the toad, made equally innumerable anti-poison and overall healing herbs, concoctions and branches (allows one to hit-heal people, a long story).

But still, he could not out-poison the toads.

Not long after my first armorless victory against Bob, I had tried to face these demons a second time, after one and a half year various poison trainings and with all my antivenom measures at ready on my cloak.

***One year before, three days after the end of last chapter***

I stood in front of a toad, staring intensely into its cruel eyes.

"Groah."

"It shall not be like last time, beast. Today, I shall surpass you!" With that roar of courage and determination, I once again booped the face of death.

There was a silence for half a second, then a poof and the surrounding were once again covered in a green cloud.

As I once again felt my bowels giving up on me and my face hitting the ground, I cursed the fact that my poison resistance was apparently just enough for me to avoid passing out and the antivenom measures on my coat were less than useless, as the coat itself had died the moment that it came into contact with the cloud.

***Back to the present***

After two hours awake but unable to move while seizuring in the ground on my on excrement, I decided to let the toads be... For now, I shall eventually surpass them!... Someday.

I could, of course, just order branches across the Island to simultaneously spear all of the toads into extinction. But considering I can already beat Bob in hand to hand most of the times, they were kinda of my only goal until my ship was finished, so it payed to keep them alive... Also, I refuse to murder them without beating them, that would be admitting defeat.

Focusing back on the tiny threat to my life that blocked my path, I looked at, it looked at me. I breathed in preparation for our epic battle, it groah(ed) in response.

With all the strength of my legs, I pushed myself and the two me long feline corpse off the ground, somersaulting in the air, falling on the other side of the frog, and running as fast as I could in my beachhead's direction. I wasn't happy with my toxin resistance yet, so screw that.

Huff, life threatening situation dealt with, I continued on, seeing the green walls that delimited my coast after a few more minutes of walking.

I was met half way by a lanky being made of vines in a humanoid form, with a face with no trace of mouth or eyes, simply a collection of vines walking. The being was one of my many failed attempts at getting a thinking plant. It ended up just a humanoid, not sentient, collection of vines.

Still, it was useful, with a simple thought, it took the corpse from, knowing where I wanted to keep it till the experiment, it stumbled of with the large corpse held by vines at its back.

Free of the almost a ton of flesh and bone corpse, I turn to continue walking back to my cubes. As I approached said cubes I saw another me, currently busy sparring with five young threerillas in front of my trifecta-of-cubes/home.

Dodging under and seeing me dodge under the blow of the first threerilla, then sliding to the ground to go again under the blow a second threerilla from behind, getting up with a handstand kick to the chin of a third one coming from the left that had hoped to catch me while I'm down.

Yeah, that was also a thing.

Though I haven't been able to create sentient life, I discovered how to make clones of myself a few months ago.

At the time it was just me managing to share my consciousness with my attempt at recreating a nervous-system. But now I had already managed to create a proper clone, looking just like me, despite being made of vines, wood and fungus. It kinda helped and kinda didn't for my lack of talking companionship problem.

On one side, I can finally hear a voice that is not coming from me, on the other side, I have to manually control my clones.

Meaning that I'm both currently here, walking to my showers, and also there, diverting a punch from a teenage monster gorilla the side and using the force from it to turn my wooden made clone body and give a back hand to a second incoming gorilla.

It was a very useful ability for a variety of things. But considering that I wanted a damn conversation and it meant that I had to hold both sides of the conversation, it wasn't that helpful... And I'm not proud to admit it, but I did it, I had many deep conversations with my clone-self. With a worryingly constant frequency.

As I had to control both bodies at the same time, I currently could only keep one clone really up and running. Well, I could do two clones if I tried it, but I tended to end up doing whatever I'm doing in one body with the other two.

Bob was a liiitle pissed off that one time we were chilling and I suddenly kicked his nuts because one of my then two clones was fighting a panthertail on the other side of the island.

Three gave me a killer headache, and if I try keeping four clones going I just straight up pass out from sensory overload. I was getting better at handling that though. Fighting with my clone-body did help out being used to having two points of view, all while _hearing/seeing_ the whole island through the plants.

No idea where the gorillas came from though. After my first party and first time getting wasted, I woke half way into one my giant tree top most branches with Bob missing. He showed up three days later at the walls of my beachhead with a troop of gorillas, even though I was certain he didn't have one.

I tried questioning him, with not that good results so far. I do know how he got the troop though, as since then he left the troop of gorillas at my garden and went on alone to fight other threerilla troops from around the island, bringing them back to me after killing their current alphas.

No idea why that had started, but now I'm calling him Bob Wukong, the Monkey King.

It also had the side effect of my garden hosting half of the threerillas' groups around the island, I had made some more fruit bearing trees, to keep them satisfied and away from both the birds and themselves.

Even if they all followed Bob after he went around gathering them, most threerillas from different troops tended to fight amongst each other. Many times to death.

From the angry toucans, I'm actually protecting the gorillas, not the birds. Unlike the individualist gorillas, those things work together well and are damn vicious, seeing a gorilla torn apart as if it had just jumped into a piranha full river was an... unforgettable experience.

Healthly repressing the unwanted image, I walked through the door of my cube, the pleasant smelling flowers already helping me relax. (Totally because of the good smell, not because I made them narcotic and somewhat hallucinogenic...)

One shower later I sat the porch in front of my main cube, looking at the expansive grasslands before me, the odd fruit bearing trees spread around it, most surrounded by small groups of threerillas, the large lake between my home and the sea, a couple thre-

I stopped at sensing death so close to home, from the almost one hundred meters between me and the lake I could see almost as if just besides it, there was a damn toad in my lake.

With a thought, a trunk exploded into existence by the lake's borders, throwing a small sphere from the top of it in its rise, a second later the airborne sphere was covered in a cloud of death. Thankfully too high to have any effect on my garden.

Fucking toads, no idea how it got here, my wall has standing orders to kill any toad that gets close to it.

I turn to the sea upon hearing a large splash sound, watching as a turtle head the size of ten threerillas pokes out from the water.

It stared at the relatively tiny multiple gorillas and me that were spread around the coastline before turning and munching on a large root of my main tree that I made come out from the ground by its head into the sea.

That was another thing that showed up recently, no idea what to call it, but for the last two months or so this turtle showed up to eat my roots. I had first sensed it when it actually came up the shore, entering the island and eating two trees whole. I pushed it back by lifting it through multiple roots and chucking the giant back to the sea.

Then I sensed it again just after it, eating one of the roots poking out from the underground beneath the sea.

Normally I would've had one of the many roots ensnare the reptile and use it to feed my ever growing ecosystem. But I was bored at the time and knowing the turtle wasn't a real threat, I decided to make some nutritional moss to help it along, because why not?

Probably because if I fed it, it would keep returning, as it had been since then. Thankfully, it never entered the island again, just staring expectantly at the giant tree until I give up and make more of its favorite moss. As I had done now.

With my garden once more secure from toads and my guest turtle fed I-

Holy shit, those are ships.

In the distance behind the titanic turtle's head, so far away that I could barely see them, a formation of ships looked like tiny dots in the horizon.

"Those are... Ships... Ships, that means people... People... Company!"

With a scream of excitement, I made the gigantic tree shine. All of thousands of bush-sized leaves turned bioluminescent, bursting into a bright light show that temporarily blinded and scared most of the animals around. From large three armed gorillas to city sized sea turtles.

The light show of a tree, the center of my living network, was now about as large as the island. Dwarfing everything around it, its canopy encompassed the whole surface of the island and the surrounding coastline, its roots were visible through most of the ground level and I could feel them encompass all of the close surface underground.

Regardless of the second sun shining in the island, the small fleet continued getting further away. I briefly made the tree branches spell out S.O.S, blinking in lights so bright they could easily be seen and attract attention despite being day time and the fleet being kilometers away. It was still ignored.

Not willing to let my first sight of civilization escape like that, I rush towards the beach, ordering one of the largest tree roots to stretch under the sea and start to grow towards the small fleet, making a large and quickly expanding bridge towards the fleet.

A brief voice screamed at the back of my head about how this whole thing was a terrible idea.

Discovering that I was able to coat my hand in purplish black in order to hit Bob harder, without using any plant, made pretty obvious where I was. And considering what I knew of One Piece, running towards a unknown fleet had a 99% of ending badly.

They're talking people though, who don't pick flies of eachother furs and throw shit around, there was not a doubt that I was going there.

I rushed towards the coast line, passing by Bob sleeping under one of the fruit bearing trees, surrounded by a few threerillas.

Stopping by my oldest friend, I scream out a "How do I look?" while running in place from impatience, the ships getting a bit further away at every second.

The lazy bastard slowly looked up at me, a female threerilla currently grooming his fur, picking at it and eating... Something out of it, my plant senses could probably tell me, but I don't really want know.

He dead stared at me, my long, unkempt brown hair with a small forest of leaves and grass spread around it, my thick and bushy beard, that by now reached my chest, in the same situation as my hair.

My friend looked deeply at the hobo looking me, then did something that I'm still not sure if he understood the meaning of or just understood that most of the times I would leave him alone if he did it, pointed two thumbs up at me.

Screaming out a thanks, I continued running, quickly reaching the coast line, continuing to run over the sea through the floating root.

A large eel/snake thing tried coming up to take a bite of the root, but thankfully I was able to feel its movements through the root's sonar like senses, and created a spike to meet it mid-way, that pierced through its open mouth and into its brain. The corpse distracting any other gigantic see predator from my root bridge.

The small pause to make the Sea King killing spike gave me time to actually look at the ships that I was pursuing in the middle of a monster infected ocean.

And they removed whatever little doubt I had about where I was, as the vaguely familiar symbol of the World Government stared at me in every sail of the large Marine warships that paddled along in the currentless, windless sea.

 _'Hmm...'_ , for a single second I considered not engaging.

My memories about the One Piece Government authorities didn't say much good about them. But I discarded that idea in the in the next second, shitty people or not, they are still people. And I need to hold a conversation with someone that it's not just another me in wooden body.

They are a world encompasing government body, they couldn't be as cartoonish bad as in the anime. I bet even Akainu wouldn't shoot a random person taking a walk through the sea... maybe if they were wearing black and had anything resembling a skull motiff. Thankfully, I was doing neither.

I quickly ate a nutrient powered fruit grown from a branch that exploded from the root bridge, better to be ready for a fight at least. Finished with my energy pack fruit, I continued running.

"Ooooooi! Heeeeeey" I kept yelling out, waving my arms as I got closer to the fleet.

***Celestial Dragon Expeditionary Fleet***

Vice-Admiral Comil sighed for what had to be the thousandth time in this week alone.

During his stay on the Scylla, the preferred ship of Saint Tallir, the Vice-Admiral had to bear witness to countless actions that went against his moral code and made him question his decision to join the marines.

Recently promoted to his position, the third highest that anyone could reach in the Marines, just beneath the Fleet Admiral and three Admirals, Comil had began his career as a Vice-Admiral in the hopes that he could start making large scale changes. Help not just the couple of people of the village that he was stationed in, but entire Blues.

Instead, he had just spent five months traveling around West Blue gathering... _slaves._

The thought made him clench his fist hard enough to crack the Adam Wood railing of the ship, his hands unconsciously covered in Haki.

More than a hundred times he had to repress the urge of caving in the head of the so called Saint instead of actually protecting the scum as he took in prisioners, pirates and even just civilians out of the streets to a life of slavery.

Comil wasn't a soft person, he had no problem killing pirates or even torturing criminals if they had truly important information. But never with innocent civilians, and no torture that he was a part of ever reached a tenth of the cruelty of what the World Noble did for fun, regardless how many lives were depending on the information.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on regulating his breath.

Trying to not think of the woman currently chained at the _Dragon's_ room, one who he had stood by as the Celestial Guard killed the husband of and put in chains at their last stop, all because an asshole born 10,000 meters up the Red-Line had found her pretty.

"Not what you expected?"

The cold voice from behind him had Comil turning around to see the sour, serious face of his fellow Vice-Admiral, Onigumo.

Knowing that he couldn't go into detail about how much he despised the World Noble inside of the Dragon's own ship, he answered with a simple and clearly frustrated.

_"No."_

Vice-Admiral or not, he doubted that the CP-0 agents around would let it pass if he said what he actually thought of his assignment.

"Hm, it never is." He disliked the more experienced Vice-Admiral, had always thought that Onigumo was too cold to be on the side of justice. But, if nothing else, they shared the companionship of having the same disappointing bosses.

Looking to the sea to try to take his mind off both the innocent and the not so innocent victims held in the cargo area of the ship, future slaves that he would in any other situation set free, but now helped lock up.

Staring at the ocean but not really looking at it, he was surprised when he was suddenly forced to divert his eyes as a second sun burst into existance where a gigantic tree had been sitting in the horizon.

"What the hell..." Comil sounded out while covering his eyes.

"Let's just be thankful that the _Dragon_ is in his chambers, otherwise we would probably have to investigate what that was because he got curious." Onigumo replied without taking his eyes off the blinding light.

Comil was thankful, strange weather events or wild life weren't unusual at the Calm Belt or the Grandline, but they were still almost always dangerous. He would rather sail away from it than towards it.

As the light died down, Comil was finally able to look up again.

The first thing that he noticed was a large snake snaking its way towards the ship. Believing it to be another of the area's countless Sea Kings, Comil got ready to defend the ship, till he saw the small form running over it.

"Is that a person?" He asked his fellow Vice-Admiral incredulously. Said person seemed to be waving his arms and yelling something that the distance and the sound of the sea covered up.

Unfortunately, because of the blinding light and his focus on what he had believed to be an incoming snake Sea King, Comil didn't notice as an even greater threat approached from behind him.

"Oh-hohohoho, I do believe it's a person, how interesting." Comil tensed, forcing down the reflex and the wanting of turning around and caving in the face of the voice's origin.

Behind him and Onigumo, Saint Tallir, a Celestial Dragon, scurried between the two taller warriors. Forcing them to take steps to the side, lest he stumble into them and accuse them of attacking his _Holiness_.

"Oh-hohohoho, how interesting, how interesting." The fat, bubble helmeted _noble_ sounded on. "To think we would find such a specimen at the end of my hunt. How fortuitous."

Comil tensed even more, he knew the vermin enough to know what would come after this. A quick look to his fellow Vice-Admiral showed that Onigumo kept the same serious face as ever, but Comil knew him enough to recognize the tenseness around his eyes.

Onigumo might be ruthless, but he's still a marine. There's no justice in the enslavement of the innocent, and the guy coming towards them was probably not a pirate.

"Well, what are you two waiting for? Go grab me my new toy. Go on, chop, chop." The noble said, waving dismissively at them while still staring at the person running along the growing... whatever that thing underwater may be.

With his thousandth and first sigh of this assignment, Comil got ready to do one more thing that he would carry the shame of for the rest of his life.

* * *

**Yeah, I know that I said the MC would set sail this chapter. But I haven't decided between a floating island or a walking island for the MC's ship** **yet** **, so I decided to go with the first meeting arc before setting sail.**

**Next chapter, the first fight/interaction and meeting the first crewmembers.**


	7. Chapter 7

**As always, posting without a beta and without any great spell checking. If you notice any grammar/sentencing errors, please point it out.  
  
Honestly, the fight ends a bit abruptly, it was shaping up to be way larger than I wanted it, so I kinda just forced it to finish. Might come back to change it later.  
**

* * *

***Celestial Dragon Expeditionary Fleet, Calm Bet, 8 years before canon***  
  
Running along the growing root bridge, I approached the fleet that was now seemingly stopping to meet me, the strange paddle wheels besides each vessel stopped turning, the boats consequently stopping in the zero sea and wind currents environment.  
  
The root bridge beneath me grew at a rate I only used once or twice, exactly when testing how fast I could create large constructs.  
  
I passed out trying to make the several thousand handed giant buddha from my memories in a single go. But luckily, the stream of Sea Kings coming to feed on the first victim of my roots allowed for a constant stream of nutrients to fuel the bridge's growth.  
  
The blood of the first murder attracking other Sea Kings looking for a meal only to be victims to the predatory flora, in an ever increasing banquet for the roots that grew forward through the sea and downward through Sea King corpses.  
  
Ever increasing as in five Sea Kings. That may seem little, but these things were gigantic, I could build a root up to the sky with three.  
  
I was almost there, I could even see the people on the ship now. Two tall, broad shouldered men with the shoulder coats that I vaguely recognized as a sign of high rank in the Marines... Oda was pretty vague about rank distinction, so it could mean anything from Ensign to Admiral really.  
  
Thankfully, they didn't seem like any of the Admirals that I remembered. Really didn't want to test my "even Akainu wouldn't shoot a random person at sea" theory.  
  
Besides them there was a relatively tiny, fat man in a bubble head suit dangling at the ship ship's railing.  
  
A fat man, in a bubble headed space suit, surrounded by two high ranking marines...  
  
I stopped dead at the still growing root extended at sea, and started growing its thickness as well besides extending, in case I had to fight at sea. It was soon thicker than three of the marines warships lined up.  
  
I was about to go into a whole inner debate on if I should or shouldn't risk going over regardless of the bubbled headed fat man I'm pretty sure was a World Noble, who my vague memories painted a pretty not pretty picture of.  
  
It shouldn't be a difficult question, I'm sure there should be at least one good World Noble, but the chances of stumbling upon that one were _really_ small. But I _really_ wanted a conversation that wasn't a gorilla shrieking at me for fruit.  
  
While I was deciding if I should go through with meeting the fleet or not, the Marines made my decision null.  
  
The bubble headed Celestial Dragon said something to the marines besides them, then the dark haired of the two marines blurred into what I vaguely recognized as Soru, showing up mid-air only to disappear again three times in a quick sequence, growing ever closer with each blur.  
  
He finished his fourth Soru right besides me, blade already raised and falling towards my throat.  
  
Well, going by the Celestial Dragon on the ship and the blade coming for my throat, I'm pretty sure that there goes any chance for an enlightened conversation.  
  
Though I could barely follow him during his Soru, he moved just a bit faster than Bob outside of it, plenty reactable to me.  
  
Ducking under the blade, I threw a punch to the lower stomach of the attacker, forcing him to bend into himself, vines growing from my fist encircling and growing _into_ the marine.  
  
A second later I jumped to the side and twisted mid-air to avoid the incoming slash of the second, blond haired marine, That had charged towards me while I was focusing on the dark-haired one.  
  
Landing awkwardly but facing my new opponent, I -with the omnipresent vision granted by being on my own root- saw as behind me black haired suddenly stood dead still, felt through the vines digging into him as his flesh turned hard like iron. Then, with a single quick movement, somehow pulled all the vines that by then covered his entire body.  
  
Those vines were enough to stop Bob dead on his tracks. Yeah, these guys definitely aren't Ensigns. With a Celestial Dragon nearby they are probably Vice or Rear Admirals.  
  
So, I was surrounded by two either Vice or Rear Admirals, with a five warship fleet surrounding me and probably at least one CP-something agent to guard the World Noble.  
  
The smile I couldn't take off my face made me question my sanity a bit.  
  
I had started fighting Bob because I was bored on the island. My powers solved every possible basic need or want. I didn't need to fight anything, definitely not fist-fight anything, but I was bored, and was surprised by how fun it was to punch others and get punched in the face in return.  
  
Bob was a great opponent, I had a year of difficult, heart pumping battles with him, and half a year of fun battles. But in every single one of them, I had used just my fists and, at the start, my armor.  
  
The threerilla is just beginning to learn Armament, and any one of my roots could still kill him in a second. So I had never really had a fight where I was at risk, where my life was on the line, where I had to give my all.  
  
Why was my smile stretching wider?  
  
"Oi!" I yelled out to the two marines surrounding me, my voice raspy from lack of use. "Who you guys!?"  
  
The dark haired one behind me just frowns, six extra arms appearing at his sides, each grasping a blade, indicating both that he ate a Devil Fruit and that he didn't intend to talk.  
  
The blond one tightens his grip on his own two swords and also frowns, but more sadly.  
  
"We're Vice-Admirals Comil and Onigumo." He said, nodding in the direction of the dark haired to indicate who is who "I apologize for this, but we're going to take you down."  
  
"Apologizing doesn't really help if you're still going to do it, ya know?" I snorted back.  
  
Vice-Admirals... Haaah, my smile could rip my face in half, my heart hasn't pumped like these since the third month of my fights with Bob. That was two years ago. Battles were the only exciting thing that I can remember doing, testing my powers was nice and a good time waster, but it didn't get my blood pumping like this.  
  
I probably should try and talk to them more, maybe negociate peace, but what little I remembered told me that nothing good would come from negotiating with a Celestial Dragon, definitely not if I wasn't in a position of strength.  
  
I knew I should probably be afraid, or at least cautious, but through the Sea King sized bridge connected all the way to my far in the horizon Island, I could access feel and access the energy of an entire ecosystem.  
  
Maybe it was the rush of having the power of the entire island behind me, maybe it was arrogance borne of being able to kill everything that I had met so far with but a thought to my plants, maybe it was just the various combat stims concoctions I had made during my experiments during these four years and that now run through my veins, but I could only feel excitement.  
  
"Well, nice to meet ya! Try not to die." I smiled at them.  
  
With that, my foot sank into and merged with the root beneath me. Through it, I connected myself with all of the floral and fungal life back at the isle as the two Vice-Admirals rushed at me.  
  
Connected to the vast well of energy resulting from the photosynthesis, chemosynthesis, predation and even some radiosynthesis of all the interconnected floral and fungal life of the entire island, it was much easier to create plant life.  
  
If this was an anime, this would be the part that I screamed out "Nativity of a World of Trees!". Or something equally dramatic.  
  
Instead, without a word, full sized trees burst to life around the root over the ocean. The two Vice-Admirals, almost reached me, with Comil being halfway through raising his right sword for the strike, before being washed away by the sea of trees that exploded into existence to cover the actual sea.  
  
I regretted not bringing basket v.2 -the coat- in my rush towards the first form of civilization that I ever saw.  
  
I had enough plants compacted in there to just unfurl as much vegetation as I just forced into existence without having to actually create anything. Said unfurling being faster and less consuming than growing completely new plants. In my excitment I hadn't expected a fight though, or planned at all.  
  
Still, coat or no coat, the rushing, growing forest quickly covered the distance to the fleet, snaring and merging with the ships of the Government fleet. I could vaguely sense the various Marines and Celestial Dragon's Guards fighting the predatory roots and branches.  
  
Most didn't have much luck, the trees slowly overtaking the ships' decks, but not touching the ships' insides yet. It's a Celestial Dragon's fleet, I'm sure there are slaves in there and I would rather not kill them by accident.  
  
There was one Marine keeping his ship -one of the _dragon's_ escorts- mostly tree free, and two mask wearing guards -that I suspected were CP-0 agents- destroying any vegetation approaching the still dangling fat dragon. Said fat dragon just looked around as if it was all an interesting show.  
  
With my senses connected to the growing and still multiplying trees I could _see_ as Onigumo's eight arms relentlessly cut away the growing vegetation, slowly gaining back the ground that he lost during the original burst of trees.  
  
Comil had lost one of his two swords during the burst, unable to fight back against the vegetation in time the man had locked himself in the position for what I imagine was Tekkai, sticking his feet into the ground and taking hits from trunk like branches three times bigger than him like it was nothing.  
  
At my command, a seed burst from one of the many branches attempting and failing to impale the blond Vice-Admiral, the seed flew from the branch's side and exploded into a dark green cloud of gas a second after coming into contact with the air, the cloud covering the upper body and head of the marine.  
  
The most powerful of my many attempts of copying or surpassing the deathtoads' poison... no success there so far, the damn amphibians were still the most poisonous thing on the Island, but it was still pretty deadly.  
  
I couldn't stop to see the effects of the poison, as I felt as Onigumo cut through the last large tree in his path to reach me and bulldozed his way through the smaller branches of the still growing forest of mangroves, ignoring the many small cuts he suffered in his path, none being more than flesh deep.  
  
I sank into the root bridge just as six arms cut the air where I previously was. Moving through the root, I felt the hard wood stop two shots from the Vice-Admiral's two pistol wielding hands that fired at my submerged position. That's some good Observation.  
  
Swimming through the root, I emerged out from the trunk of one of the many growing trees that were still trying to impale Comil. The Marine still holding on to both his Tekkai and his breath, to avoid impalement and breathing poison, respectively.  
  
He probably had some poison training, as most of the cloud would still enter through his pores, enough for a threerilla to at least pass out, likely die.  
  
Emerging with a black, Haki covered spike of greybark wood in place my right fist, I punched forward to puncture the chest of the locked down Vice-Admiral.  
  
It surprised me when he left his Tekkai position as soon as I threw the punch, twisting to face me in a second, the surrounding branches pierced he now softer muscle but still didn't reach far, his musculature still in a half Tekkai-like hardness.  
  
The trunk that I was still half infused into pulled itself back, allowing me to barely dodge backwards and avoid the haki infused swing of his remaining katana, that reached close enough to touch and cut through my skin-like fungi armor, not touching actual flesh by millimeters.  
  
There was no time for any counter attack, Onigumo flashed in besides me in a static of Soru, the six katana holding arms moving to cut though the tree I was currently in. I was barely able to throw myself downwards, leaving the tree and avoiding the slice.  
  
I rolled forwards as I fell, the everpresent omni-vision that my plants gifted me allowed me to still follow my opponents' movements, so I interrupted my roll to throw myself to the side to avoid a haki covered kick from Comil.  
  
I stuck my hand into the root to force myself into a stop and hastily re-balanced myself while turning to the Marines.  
  
The second that my feet connected to the root a trunk the thickness of one of the warships exploded into existence under Comil, stopping the Vice-Admiral from continuing his attack, sending him flying upwards and -hopefully- hurting him with the impact of the push.  
  
I myself couldn't follow through with an attack on the now airborne marine, Onigumo once more covered for the opening, flashing into existence at my left, leaving behind the branches that were attacking him to show up for a six sword stab.  
  
A large branch grew beneath me and carried me upwards, the stabbing swords sunk into the trunk of the growing branch and vines as strong as I could make them grew around the sunken swords and the Marine's eight hands, holding him in place for a second. A second was all I needed.  
  
I surfed on the branch as it looped from growing upwards, turning around and descending to stab at the back of the stuck Onigumo, focusing to cover the pointed tip of the surfboard/branch with Armament.  
  
Just as I was about to reach the restrained eight-armed swordsman, I was forced to stop the attack and dodge to the side, the whole branch twisting to avoid the missile that was a Geppo bound Comil. The man-missile missing the branch but continuing downwards, shaking and almost breaking the bridge root in a half with his landing.  
  
By the time that I finished reorientating myself on the root, it was just to see Onigumo free himself by cutting the branch in half and moving in a jump to stand besides his fellow Vice-Admiral.  
  
Falling from the now cut branch that I had been surfing on, I let it go on to merge itself back into the root, the base of the new sea forest and landed before the two Marines.  
  
There was a moment of quiet tension as the three of us stared off. Onigumo and Comil flexing and moving their muscles to test their mobility after the many tiny cuts and punctures from the many branches and vines, Comil was also probably at least numb from the poison that he had been covered in.  
  
"Ha, hahaha, hahahahahaha! Hahahhahha!" Then I broke the tense silence by falling to ground in hysterical laughter.  
  
It was probably the oddness of it that stopped the Vice-Admirals from attacking me while I was down. I could've sunk into the root/ground if it came to it, but it was still the type of opening you _have_ to try and take it.  
  
"...ha, ha... ha" Coming down from my laughing fit I slowly got up.  
  
"Sorry, sorry." I said with a smile "fighting like this is just surprisingly fun."  
  
Any attempt of testing my powers against the local fauna would end up in an instant victory. Hell, an attack of the same magnitude as this still growing forest would've killed all of Bob's large gorilla troop in a second.  
  
Fighting had been the only really heart pumping thing that I had to do at the island, and I've become rather fond of it, but all of my fights hadn't really been _fights._ Spars, experimentation, exercise, but never really fights.  
  
This was the first actual fight that I really couldn't solve in half a second, that my life was in actual danger. And in my whole four years of memories, I had never felt this alive.  
  
My opponents weren't in a talking mood though. Comil frowned even more sadly, while Onigumo's face seemed carved from rock.  
  
Instead of a good banter, I was forced to play limbo, my upper body bending backwards to avoid the sword that would've bisected me in two. A thought focused the wide spread growth around the root-bridge to once more burst giant trees beneath the Marines.  
  
This time Comil managed to jump away from the worst of it, then a constant sequence of Geppos and Armament covered punches kept him from being pinned down like before.  
  
A rush of vines from the bridge root stopped Onigumo from following the lead of his fellow Vice-Admiral, holding him in place just enough for me to get my equilibrium back. They didn't manage to hold all of his arms though, so it didn't stop the two shots that clashed uselessly against my armor, the bullets falling to the ground with a quiet thud.  
  
Taking advantage of Onigumo's one second hesitation caused by the unexpected uselessness of his guns, I rushed at him, throwing a Haki infused punch towards the Vice-Admiral's head, which he barely managed to dodge by turning his head side-ways, my armor and Armament covered hand scrapping by his cheek.  
  
But he wasn't able to totally dodge the spike that sprouted for the side of my forearm though, twisting his body despite the roots still holding onto his arms and dodging most of it, but still leaving a large gash crossing over his face, barely missing his eyes.  
  
Onigumo managed to break through the vines and jumped back while trying to remove the blood from his eyes with one of his eight hands, before I could exploit his temporary blindness, I was forced to block a coming poke? Probably a Shingan, from Comil. Who had managed to leave the growing forest behind him in a sequence of geppos and sorus.  
  
Grabbing the wrist of the stabbing hand with my left, three wooden hands grew around my wrist and grabbed the stabbing arm along with my real hand to solidify my hold.  
  
Holding the Vice-Admiral, I projected several small, but sharp thorns throughout my now four hands, piercing through Comil's flesh before he could reinforce it through Haki or Tekkai.  
  
Still, pierced or not, he quickly covered his hand with Haki and removed it, jerking his arm towards himself while he jumped back. The action leaving long gashes of open flesh where the thorns, already impeded into his wrist, ripped through even the haki invested skin.  
  
He stumbled back, almost falling to his knees after landing. The long gashes along his right wrist and forearm would be worrying by themselves, but the main point of the thorns was the toxins embedded into its tips, made for a mixture of maximum pain and paralyzing effect.  
  
I had tried the venom on myself during my toxin training to prepare myself to fight the deathtoads. Even after I had stopped feeling most of the pain from it -through developing either my pain or my poison resistance, still not sure- I could never move properly, no matter how many times I used it.  
  
And though I'm lazy, I'm also stubborn, I was paralyzed and seizuring from the poison more times than I would like to admit, so it was definitely strong... I was bored and Bob is a terrible conversationalist, okay?  
  
The Vice-Admiral showed his grit by managing to stay up, but I could see from his twitching arms and legs that the toxin was in him and having an effect. Still impressive, I had only managed to somewhat move through the pain and the stiff, spazzing muscles after my 15th or so dose.  
  
Jumping at the seizuring Marine before he could recover, I landed a quick sequences of punches, each leaving vines on the spots of the hits, the vines growing and encircling the Vice-Admiral. Before I could finish my combo on the poisoned Marine, I instinctively jumped up to avoid a six sword slash from the back.  
  
It was at the air that I realized my mistake.  
  
I fought close to the ground for a many reasons, it was easier to grow plants from the ground or existing plants (which are normally on the ground, or are the ground in this case), I got energy from the being connected to the plants (who are, again, normally on the ground) and, most importantly, I can't move quickly in the air. I don't know Geppo and had never seen the need to create any quick air movement technique.  
  
With a desperate order to grow a tree directly beneath Onigumo, he was forced to use five of his eight arms to cut away the growing vegetation. The other three were unfortunately available to stab at me with.  
  
There was no time for me to create a vine to swing myself away, for a second I thought about whether it was worth the risk of creating a methane full plant grenade analogue to literally blow me away or maybe trying that plant wing idea that I thought it too stupid to be worth it before. All viable options for flight that I never tested for a lack of need.  
  
Sadly, in the almost two seconds that I had, I didn't think to think that I didn't have the time to think.  
  
Still in the air, I was barely able to put up a Haki and Greybark armor covered forearm to redirect the blade that would've stabbed me between the eyes. Focused on that, I could do nothing as the other two haki infused blades pierced through my chest and kidney.  
  
There was a flash of hot, white of pain, followed by an instinctual desire to kill the source of said pain.  
  
The flora beneath me responded to that desire with the surge of two thick wooden walls rising as if jaws from the ground root to swallow Onigumo, the Vice-Admiral was able to react putting up a guard with his eight swords, ripping the blades stuck into me in the process, by slicing his way out.  
  
I was barely able to push enough wood and Haki into the left side of my chest to force Onigumo to rip the sword at my chest through the right, avoiding my heart. It still hurt like a bitch, and I'm pretty sure that he took half of my kidney with the other blade.  
  
Falling to the ground like a sack of potatoes once no longer impaled, vines and wood covered me when I touched the ground root, closing my wounds and filling nutrients, vitamins and all the good stuff into me.  
  
With his eight swords free and covered in Haki, the Vice-Admiral quickly shredded the wooden jaws.  
  
He would've turned back to finish my fallen form, but it didn't matter that he destroyed the wooden construct, the real attack was the white cloud that was released from within the destroyed wood.  
  
Though I was too distracted with saving my heart and trying not to pass out from the pain when I was stabbed, my powers -and/or instinct- had reacted to my wish by using the most lethal of my experiments so far.  
  
Fallen and barely staving off passing out as the root fueled in everything that I needed to heal into me, I was barely able to feel the gush of wind as the Vice-Admiral swung his swords with enough force for the resulting winds to wash away the cloud of fungal spores.  
  
His yell of pain a second later proved it was too late though.  
  
Through almost closing eyes I was able to see the flesh slowly disappear from his right shoulder and left hip, a white wave growing from it, devouring the Vice-Admiral. His attempts of patting away the tide only made his hands be eaten faster.  
  
It was the most deadly of my experiments so far, the flesh eating fungus.  
  
It grew exponentially, being capable of clearing a large Sea King to the bones in under 10 minutes. I hadn't used so far because I had hoped to capture most people alive... And I was having way more fun than I expected in that fight.  
  
Unable to get up or turn away, I watched worryingly impassive as my opponent was dissolved alive in front of me, his screams ringing through the otherwise silent forest.  
  
The few times that he used Armament, the white-tide would slow down slightly.  
  
But Onigumo wasn't proficient enough with Haki to cover all of himself in Armament, much less under the pain of being eaten alive, cell by cell. So he would cover a body part in Armament, only for the fungi eating another part of his body to break his concetration as it ate at his nervous system.  
  
As his picked clean bones fell to ground I was finally able to look away from that train wreck.  
  
Closing my eyes for a second from the sudden tiredness that came after my impalement and blood loss, I opened them quickly as the screaming half melted face of Onigumo flashed in my eyelids. Well... that sucks.  
  
Closing my eyes once again, I forced away the images of melting half-spider men, and focused on the plants around me. I could properly panic over killing someone after all of this was dealt with.  
  
Thankfully, it was easier to ignore the screams that still echoed at the back of my head with my mind busy _seeing_ through my plants.  
  
Comil, the now only Vice-Admiral around, was still encased in the now cocoon of steel strong vines. With a quick though some of the vines grew roots that pierced into him and started sucking away nutrients, nothing that would kill him, but I didn't want him to be strong and fight-ready if he somehow got out.  
  
The Celestial Dragon was still leaning on his ship's railing, no longer dangling over it, probably because he could no longer see us from the ship, the canopy of the forest that I had created to fight the Vice-Admirals covering the battleground from sight. He was still protected from the vegetation by the mask wearing man and woman.  
  
The Marine that had managed to protect his ship from the first wave of trees, a red-haired man with a thick darker red mustache, had moved to the deck of a second warship escort, and was now helping free the ensnared Marines and the ship, even as his own already freed ship gained a bit of distance from the captured fleet.  
  
Through the roots and vines growing into and connecting with the wood of the ship, slowly turning the ships into living constructs, I was able to sense inside of it. One of the escort ships cargo-hold held some 300 or so people in a space way to enclosed and small to be Marines' quarters, so those were probably the slaves.  
  
There were also steel cages holding 500 people beneath the Celestial Dragon ship itself, plus another group of cages holding 5 people separate for some reason. Besides who knows how many slaves were walking around the ships with bomb collars to keep them pacified.  
  
Good, good.  
  
Not the slavery of course, but the distraction from the blinding pain and my first kill, the objective was something I needed right now.  
  
Trying and failing to force the Vice-Admiral's screams further into the back of my head, I slowly got up.  
  
"Huuuuurgh." Just like I had never felt as alive as moments before, I had never felt so shitty as right now. Besides my routine deathtoads' deathmatches, but those are a familiar type of shitty by now. I hadn't gotten this close to dying in a fight since Bob had managed to almost break my neck that one time.  
  
The bleeding had stopped, the wounds were visibly closing and I could feel the roots pumping me up with anastelgic, narcotics, combat stims, nutrients and vitamins.  
  
Despite that, everything still hurt, and I still couldn't move my right arm.  
  
Onigumo's blade had stabbed me in the middle of my chest and was ripped off by cutting its way under my right arm pit, making so any move with it was slow, difficult and hurt like hell. And so that I had an arm pit that reached my sternum.  
  
Barely able to sit up, I gave up on properly getting up when the stab of pain made me see black. I think that I passed out for a second, or a minute, I couldn't be sure.  
  
I knelt with my hands on the ground, knees and hands sinking into the root beneath me. If I can't force this frustration away, might as well use for something useful.  
  
Able to properly focus now that I wasn't being attacked by two soldiers of the third highest rank of the world's strongest military, a second burst of trees rose from the ground, faster and larger than before.  
  
The marine ships, barely fighting off the attacking roots and branches before, weren't able to cope as the branches suddenly grew in speed, size and strength with me focusing on them.  
  
The wine-red mustache guy was barely able to keep the ship that he was on afloat. His original, abandoned, ship being once again swallowed be the trees, the marines inside having to fight snaring branches and vines from every direction. The CP-0 agents surrounded the Celestial Dragon, giving up on keeping the entire deck plant free to better protect their charge.  
  
With some luck I would be able to end the rest of the fight here from my newly made forest, without any more casualties or injuries.  
  
  
 ***Inside the Celestial Dragon's ship, The Scylla***  
  
  
Kisame swore for whatever countless time it was in his brain, his mouth muffled by a steel gag and the rest of his body held immobile by steel chains encircling him against an Adam Wood table.  
  
Only a Celestial Dragon would be vain and rich enough to make slave holding pens with Adam Wood.  
  
The Great-White Shark Fishman tried once again to wiggle some freedom out of these chains. The effort being, once again, useless.  
  
Kisame had been trying it since his capture, how ever many days it had been.  
  
He was hungry enough that it couldn't have been just one, and they came to throw water at him enough times that he suspected something between fifteen to twenty days.  
  
It didn't matter. He would endure, he would survive even if just long enough to sink his teeth into the neck of the damn worm calling itself a dragon that thought he could own him. He would almost definitely be killed the second that he did it, but he would die with a smile by the World Nobles' corpse.  
  
Preparing for the wiggle attempt number 1000th, he was taken from his routine as the ship started shaking violently, then it briskly tipped to the right.  
  
The table that he was chained to, while heavy enough he couldn't move without leverage and at his position, was sent flying. It hit the bars with enough strength that something in the table broke, its right side loosening and bending in a way that gave Kisame's arms way too much room to be safe.  
  
He didn't know or care to know right now if the force of the impact had been stronger than he thought or if someone had sold the _Dragon_ fake Adam Wood for it to break easily like this.  
  
With enough space for some proper movement, the fishman was able to use his legs in an improved Fishman-Karate move to break the remaining steel chain links, freeing his lower body from the bent table.  
  
With his lower body free to move, a kick properly broke the table and left him free to move in his cell. Though he was unable to brute force his hands out of the thick steel shackles that held them.  
  
Taking some time to test his muscles and adapt to his new mobility, he readied himself. Now that he could move, he just needed to think on how to either escape or kill at least one marine before being taken down.  
  
"Fish!"  
  
Instinctively looking up at the derogatory name so often used against his species, he expected to see the Celestial Dragon's Guard responsible for guarding the cells coming angrily at him.  
  
Not to briefly see said guard coming flying at his cell as if thrown, hitting the cell bars head first.  
  
He didn't allow the strangeness of it to stop him, he jumped the Guard before the soldier could get away from the cell bars, the two hands held together by the steel manacle barely able to reach the sides of the still disoriented guard's head.  
  
The first pull hit the head of the guard against the sea stone cells with enough force to dazzle him, the second with enough strength to open flesh and leave him unconscious, the third hit opened the back of the guard's head in a splurge of gore.  
  
The blood and brain mater staining his hands didn't give Kisame a pause as he pulled the corpse closer to the cells to reach for the keychains.

* * *

**If anyone wonders why he didn't use a clone during the fight, it was because he's still training in fighting with it. Splitting your consciousness is not something you try out in your first serious fight. On why he didn't use one to meet the fleet while the original remained on the Island, he got over-excited at the first signs of civilization.  
  
On the flesh eating fungi, it's a bit overpowered, yes. But it can be stopped and it won't work against logias (how can fungi eat up a mass of lightining or sand?) or Yonko level fighters (apparently Big Mom is sword proof, so I'm going with Yonko/Garp level people just having strong enough bodies to not be eaten).  
  
And just to point out that he can fly with his plants, he did mention a few possible options for it. He just froze and overthought while being stabbed at mid-air, it was his first actual death battle, so I wanted him to commit a rookie mistake.  
  
SPOILER  
  
For anyone worried about the Celestial Dragon surviving with the MC wanting to take everyone alive. Chill, plans don't always work out.**


	8. Chapter 8

****I should be working... Quick chapter!** **

****Rough draft, no beta or checking, I'll probably comeback and check it later on, but I'd appreciate if you guys could point out grammar/sentencing errors.** **

****Filler(ish) chapter, but needed to push the plot along.  
** **

* * *

** *Celestial Dragon's Expeditionary Fleet, Calm Belt, 8 years before canon* **

Akame dodged under a grabbing root, twisting mid jump to bisect it, a second swing of her sword cutting away the vines that surged from the now open root.

Seeing one of the roots going in the direction of the VIP, she kicked the ground, appearing before the root in a burst of Soru, cutting it vertically in half. Barely able to use a Tekkai in time to not be impaled through the left by a new root sprouting from the ship's deck.

Her colleague, who she only knew as 12 -just as he only knew her as 28-, flashed in to stop a following root from killing the Celestial Dragon.

Who was still looking around as if in a play or show. And mumbling something she was currently too busy to hear. She was sure it would be disappointing.

Forcing away the small frown instinctively forming on her face, Akame did her best to ignore the flaws of the _Dragon_ she had been trained and indoctrinated since 5 years old to protect, focusing on the more serious issue.

The sounds of fighting from the... sea forest stopped for some time, the Vice-Admirals haven't returned and the vegetation growth was increasing in speed, intensity and variety. That meant the Vice-Admirals likely lost.

Akame was sure that with she and 12 together would be enough to take down one of the Vice-Admirals, but definitely not both at the same time.

She needed to regroup with her fellow agent so they could take the Celestial Dragon to safety. There was still that Rear-Admiral that they had stumbled upon along their journey, the VIP commandeering the marine's ships into being escorts.

Akame thought it another useless show of power at the time, there should be no need for an extra warship in a convoy made of two top of the line marine warships and two especially designed warships from the Gavera World Noble family.

She was proven wrong. Now taking the Celestial Dragon to said Rear-Admiral's ship, the farthest from the growing forest, and working along side him to escape were their best bet.

Akame was taken from her thoughts as a tree larger than the others exploded into existence right beneath her, jumping forward to escape, she landed on strangely soft ground fo a ship's deck, a quick look down telling her that she she was currently standing upon a large, orange flower.

Quickly jumping away from the strange flower, avoiding any strange flora, a reasonable thing to do while tree branches attempt to murder you.

She turned to return to the protection circle around the Noble, seeing both the VIP and her fellow agent on the ground.

She instinctively rushed to guard the fallen Celestial Dragon, her body moving even before her thoughts, as she was trained her entire life to do.

But after the first hard step forwards, the world suddenly went out of balance, the ships, the clouds, the sea, it all blurred and moved drunkenly while her legs suddenly felt like wet noddles.

She managed force three more steps before falling on fer face, unable to move any muscle on her body. The still swirling world was a bit nauseating, but the Soru training, among others, prepared her for it.

She understood instantly that it had something to with the orange flower she stepped on earlier.

A look around her restrained line of vision, being able to move just her eyes, proved that theory as the many grown trees along the ship's deck had the flowers hanging from their branches.

There was a sound like paper being ripped, and a new, raspy voice sounded on deck.

"This feels cheap... My bad, my bad, let's fight fairly some other time, when there's no threat of death, eh?"

She didn't know if he, because the voice was definitely male, was speaking with her, her fellow agent, the VIP or himself, as she couldn't see the source of the voice from her position. Only knowing that it was close by.

She desperately tried to force herself to move, her katana was an arms reach away, no muscle answered.

"Hmm... Well, this was definitely not how I wanted my first human contact... possibly ever to go." The voice continued, now almost definitely talking to itself. "Let's deal with this and hope the ex-slaves will be better company I guess."

If her echolocation was not failing her like her muscles, she heard as the voice walked towards where she remembered the Celestial Dragon to have fallen.

She once again tried to force herself to move, a stubbornness born of gruelling training with the best soldiers and agents of the World Government since infacy ordering her locked muscles to do _something!Anything!_ It, once again, had no effect.

She heard as the voice reached where the fallen Dragon should be and...

"Hurgh!" a pained grunt sounded. "Okay, lifting fat men while having a hole through my kidney and being almost bisected at my chest was not my brightest idea."

Akame relaxed, she thought it was the VIP that was hurt.

"Ah!Ugh!Aaaaaah!" yelled a more familiar -and annoying- voice, all preceded by slap sounds, she tensed, yet again trying to move to protect her objective. Yet again, no response.

"Hahaha! This is way too much fun!" The voice sounded out to himself.

"Ah, I probably should show some restrain though. World Nobles are kinda fragile." A identical voice sounded closer to her, mirth clear in his voice as his fellow manhandled the highest standard of the nobility in the four Blues and the Grandline.

Looking up as far as she could, she could barely see a person crouched above her head.

Two strangely clean bare feet, followed by pants made of green fur(?) and a pale white sleeveless shirt, covering a lanky, tanned man at least thrice her size, with a head covered in long hair and a equally long beard, a strange mix of brown and green with the many leaves spread through it, and a large awkward smile.

A large, thick coat of branches, vines and leaves covering the back of the figure, neck to toes.

The strangest things were the eyes though, they looked dea- no, not even that, they looked painted on.

She heard the person holding the Celestial Dragon out of her view say something, but she was too far away to understand it.

She saw the one closest to her open his mouth to say something.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU SAVAGE?! DO YOU KN- HNMFRGHNR!"

The interrupting voice of the slapped Dragon was interrupted as if gagged.

"Ha! About what I thought." the one crouched before her and the one holding the Celestial Dragon said at the same time.

There was another moment of silence, the one holding the struggling gagged Dragon said something she couldn't understand and there was a dull thud as the noble was released to the ground.

"That was a killer on my injured shoulder, you know?" The voice closest to her said.

Giving up on turning to look at the fallen Dragon, her head refused to obey, she saw that the closest one to her had adjusted his positioning, now being in her line of vision without her having to strain her eyes.

The barefooted, tanned, giant stick of a man was now crouched properly in front of her, an awkward smile directed directly at her.

"Yo, how you doing?"

Her deadpan stare seem to be answer enough.

"Ah... sorry about the whole paralyzing thing I guess, you would be rather annoying if I didn't do it though. Trying to kill or capture me and all that."

Her somehow deader deadpan stare seemed the appropriate answer, as, correspondingly, his already awkward smile got awkwarder.

…

…

"Fruit?" He asked, holding a strange looking pineapple that grew out of his open palm at her immobile form.

The deadpan stare turned into a glare.

"This socializing thing is more difficult than I thought..." He mumbled to himself, eating the previously offered fruit.

"Well, like I offered your boss, the Celestial Asshole over there" He said while eating and pointing at over her sight, at the direction of the muffled yells. "I'm going to recede the toxins a bit, _just_ enough for you to move your upper torso and be able to talk."

As he said that, Akame's eyes discretely went back to her katana, fallen between her and the crouched man. Even with just her upper torso, she should be able to lunge for it, his neck is within her blade's reach.

"Don't try anything like lunging at me" he said as if reading her mind "or yelling, like your boss. You will be groggy and slow, and you're surrounded by my trees already, no way that will end well for you."

He finished explaining.

She felt as the motion slowly returned to her, a slight twitch of the finger here, a ease to moving her mouth that wasn't there a second earlier.

Slowly testing her range of motions, her eyes never left her crouched opponent, who also stared at her, the awkward smile somewhat expectant.

She looked up at him, slowly opened her mouth as if to say something.

He relaxed minutely when he thought she would talk, it was the opening she had been expecting, she lunged towards her sword the moment his muscles seemingly lost tension.

She reached the fallen blade and swung it upwards, the haki covered katana was halfway through severing his neck before it locked in place, her weakened musculature unable to force it through.

The half decapitated man turned to look at her with a small frown.

"What did I just say?" He said as if his windpipe wasn't cut in half.

Then the man proved to be no man at all, dismantling himself into a floral abomination made of wood and vines, some of it staying to hold her katana and struggling hands, the rest moving to reform back into the man, crouched a bit to the side of her entangled hand and weapon.

She looked, eyes a bit wide, at the _creature_. Her blade was still black with haki, even if he was a Logia, it should have made enough to damage to at least incapacitate him. He smiled back at her unbelieving face as if she hadn't just tried to kill him.

"This body is just a clone, I'm actually over there."

Now no longer completely paralyzed, though with her arms and blade held by vines and her lower body still unresponsive, she was able to turn her head to look behind her. Where her reformed, neck whole, opponent was pointing.

The VIP was on the ground, a mass of vines covering his face as he flopped around the deck like a fish out of water, yells muffled by the vegetation. The one that had been holding the Celestial Dragon was now crouching besides her fellow agent.

She turned just in time to see 12 also lung at the other crouching man, a Shigan shaped hand aimed at the head.

But he was held by vines before he could reach his own... _version_ of the enemy? Akame was very vaguely familiar of the concept of clones. A single amongst thousands of lessons during her training had been about a Vice-Admiral with an ability like that.

She was still not sure if he was a clone as he said, or they both had the same Voices because it was actually a monstrous Calm Belt flora that ate a person and it's masquerading as a man. Probably hoping that they would take it to a populated area, where it would then consume the world...

Then both versions of the man started ranting together, taking her from her completely logical theories.

"You're all so damn stubborn. I've been alone with just anti-social gorillas for almost 5 years, I wanted to talk! You know, drink tea, eat some fruit together, then, maybe then spar, and _just_ spar. But _nooooo_ , you had to be the stereotypi-"

Briskly stopping what he was about to say, the strange man (clone?) turned his head towards the lower deck door.

The other him crouched by 12 also stopped.

She followed the direction of his sight to the door that lead towards the frontal section of the lower decks of the massive ship, the _slave pens._

There was just a couple seconds of tense silence, feeling like minutes or hours for the restrained operative, then the door opened.

***Celestial Dragon's ship, The Scylla. A couple minutes earlier.***

Baccarat always both counted on and literally counted her luck.

Since she ate that strange, foul, _foul_ tasting fruit when she was 12 years old, luck stopped being a vague concept and became a numerical value.

She always _knew_ about how much luck she had, and she made sure to keep count of it.

Always making sure to have plenty of luck on standby, taking a bit from almost every passerby without anyone being wiser. And maybe more than just a bit from particularly annoying _passersby._

No matter the situation, she always had enough luck to at least get away safely.

Luck might not be enough to make her defeat Dracule Mihawk, but she's sure the universe would shift things enough for her to escape... She would rather not need to find out, but still pretty sure she would at least survive.

But, like with every other "no chance of failure" idea, human error screwed that up.

It was a normal week, another in a long list of trips of fate, that being collecting plenty of luck and setting sailing with no course plotting and navigation.

She ended up washing up at Hyter, an island at the West Blue famous for it's mechanic shops, mechanic shipwrights and other small mechanic utility devices craftsmen.

It was no Karakuri, but it still produced some of the more advanced one person ships.

It was there that she found the NiZi3000, a small one person ship, with a single sail but capable of running on an alcohol based fuel with its small side paddles, plenty of storage and room space, everything she was looking for in a ship.

And it was the prize in a lottery, as the island was during a festival week full of various games, most of luck. Clearly, her luck had come through once again by guiding her to the island.

She, of course, won said lottery. Then she _might_ have gotten a bit drunken on her growing succession of successes and proceeded to win half of all the others games of luck in the island, getting way too much attention while also getting way too much normal drunk. Which is pretty bad for keeping an internal metaphorical count of your luck.

One thing led to another and, after she spent way too much of her luck without realizing, she had to escape from a mob of collector from an alliance of casino owners.

Unfortunately, in her luckless state, one of her many pursuers yelled out "Be careful, she's a Devil Fruit user!" in listening distance of the visiting Celestial Dragon.

The next thing she saw was the small foot of a tiny mask wearing girl strangely close to her face, then darkness and waking up here with a killer headache.

After enduring weeks of this cramped cell and the two... _visits_ of the Celestial Worm, unable to steal away any luck because of the powerless induced by Sea-Stone manacles, she was resigned to whatever dark fate awaited her.

Then, her luck changed again, the ship did a hard turn, twisting and then staying somewhat leaned sideways, as if something was holding it up. The twist threw the Celestial guard captain responsible for the cells headfirst towards her cell.

Since she hadn't attacked and killed her seller, like the fishman (she was too unconscious to do it) or kept attacking anyone that came by regardless -or because of- the punishments, like the muscle bound freak in the cell in front of her, she wasn't restrained to the point of being immobile.

The Sea-Stone manacle and being on a ship at sea was considered restricting enough.

So, not being bound to a table she rushed towards the stunned guard, trying to to grab the keys. But either feeling her approaching or just having the common sense that being at an arms reach of cell bars is not a good idea, the guard tried to stumble away in his dazzled state.

She barely managed to grab the back of his armor, pulling him towards the cell despite her manacles not allowing much of a range of movement. She tried to struggle, but he was growing stronger as whatever head damage he suffered was forced away, while she could barely get a proper hold through the manacles and the cell bars.

While looking around for something -anything-, she noticed the fishman was out of his chains, and his cell was left _downwards_ with how the ship was tilted.

With a scream of "Fish!", she put her right leg out of the cell, managing to trip/throw the guard, the tilted ship making so gravity helped her along, and he was sent flying at the fishman cell, once again the bars head first.

She saw as the fishman managed to get a better grip on the stunned guard, three "thuds" and a "splat" later and he had the keys.

A couple seconds later, he opened his door. Still wearing the manacles though.

"Yo!" was all he said, throwing the keys at her and leaving further up the ship.

Jumping to catch the thrown keys, she quickly tried to get rid of these damn sea-stone handcuffs, there were no matching keys though. Guess it makes sense to not have one guard holding the keys to both means of securing the slaves.

Resigned to be as lucky as everyone else for now, she proceeded to open her doors.

A quick look around the tilted hallway told her it was empty, besides other people in the cells and the corpse by the bars of the end of the hallway cell. Some noises from a room further ahead told her where the fishman went.

Key in hand, she went to release her fellow inmates, struggling to balance herself on the tilted ship. Going first to the cell right before her own, where...

"HMFRHMG! HHHHHHMMMMMM!"

And promptly turning around to another, ignoring the man completely covered in chains, twisting and turning while moaning loudly at the way the chains grinded against his flesh and strained his bones with his every move.

Opening the cell closest to the nightmare inducing masochist, a small, thin boy that couldn't be older than 14 stared lifelessly at her.

His face was sunken from malnutrition, and his dead green eyes stared at her from a under a white curtain of hair.

"Hey, I'm releasing you now, we..." It was only after she started trying to comfort the child that looked less panicked about the situation than herself, that she realized she had absolutely no plan.

Even if whatever tilted the ship meant there was land nearby, she saw there was at least one Vice-Admiral accompanying the Worm.

So, best case scenario, they had to fight one Vice-Admiral and the entire Celestial Dragon guard detail to escape. And there was no sign of a key for the Sea-Stone manacles nearby, so probably do all of that with no powers and with their hands stuck.

...Still better than just following along with whatever the World Noble wanted.

She did not have to think up of a excuse or lie about their grim situation, the child got up without saying anything, walking outside the cell, and then standing before her. Stare focused at her with his dead, large eyes.

"Ah, hm..." With no idea what to say, she decided to deal with that later and turned around, there were still prisoners to free and marines to escape after all! It was definitely not because she had no idea how to deal with this kid. She didn't want to answer anything, lucky her if he didn't want to ask.

Turning around to the next cell, consciously ignoring the growing moans of the still bound freak and the relentless stare of the mute(?) kid. She turned to the last cell.

Greeted by the soft crying that became common throughout the voyage.

Unlike the strange kid she just released, she knew this one. The kid was on the cell right besides her own, one of the kids that were the unique mixture of lucky and unlucky to have found a Devil Fruit at one of the Blues, gaining a great power, but being demonized for it.

The Celestial Dragon had stopped by the kingdom that she lived at, a small thing made of three tiny islands at a forgotten corner of the West Blue, and heard about the so called monster.

A bit later his soldiers found and captured the small girl who had the otherwise wonderful luck of eating a logia. Apparently her mother was killed while trying to protect her.

Luckily he hadn't _visited_ her. He was trash, a rapist, a slaver and overall annoying, but at least he wasn't a pedophile.

She talked with the girl through the bars from time to time, trying to comfort the kid and pass the time. The sound of constant crying was annoying, and it's not like the child would stop if she yelled at her. It's also not like she had anything better to do.

Opening the doors, she found the small girl huddled at the corner closest to Baccarat's own old cell. Having closed her eyes, rolled herself into a ball, the girl was crying at the corner since the ship tilted.

"Hey, Honey, it's okay."

The blond girl lifted her head just enough to look at the source of her by now familiar voice. She likely understood what was happening by the open cell door, because in a instant the girl leaped to her feet and crashed into the red-haired woman.

"Baccarat!... *Hic*...The ship started...And then you didn't... And I... Aaaaah!"

Holding the now loudly crying girl, she subtly looked at the other child in the corridor.

The white-haired kid was still staring lifelessly and intensely at her... Damnit! She may dislike having to comfort the crying blond, but at least it was a kid like reaction! This other brat is way too creepy! Cry! Smile! Do something!

"Oi! Now it's not the time to play house!"

The yelling voice of the fishman interrupted her thoughts, turning to the corridor, she found the blue fishman standing by the entrance to the still bound masochist's cell, an equally blue... club? Sword? Food in a stick? Whatever, a weird blue thing in his hands, that were still shackled in front of him.

"Why the hell are you releasing the kids? Open the cell of this freak, we'll have to fight our way out of here." The blueman said with way too much excitement in his voice for the situation.

Though she would give it to him that he was right, they would need to fight their way out, and the masochist freak was the only one amongst them that had actually fought the Vice-Admiral already. She just really didn't want to deal with him alone, good thing the fishman was here now.

"Fine, fine, I'm going" she say, if nothing else happy for the excuse to get away from the bawling kid. No reason to make the fishman angry too, without her powers, he and the masochist were their only chance of escaping.

Opening the cell of the masochist that still didn't notice them, too focused on..."HMMMMMM!" his own thing, they approached the chain covered Adam Wood table holding the man.

"So, how do-" that was as far as she got while turning, the fishman's using the blue thing (which she now knew wasn't food, so either a club or a sword) to bash the table, breaking the iron like wood into pieces and loosening the chains holding their freakish fellow inmate.

"Ah!" She yelled backing away, a deeper voice yelling the same as the masochist fell to the ground with his bed/table destroyed.

Honey, the blond haired girl, hid behind her. The white-haired kid just started impassively at the almost naked man getting up from the cocoon of chains.

"Ah." The masochist repeated more calmly now, stretching with a still disturbing moan of satisfaction as his joints popped and muscles stretched after so long held as he was. Arms being stretched together as he, like all of them, still had his manacles on.

"And what is this about?" He the huge man said, still stretching his neck.

Thankfully, she didn't have to answer, as the fishman took charge.

"We're escaping, of course. Use whatever it's that tilted the ship and made it so no one came to check on us as a distraction, kill whoever gets in the way and bail out of here." He explained the succinct plan.

"Hah~ Another chance to fight that Vice-Admiral~"

She went back to trying really hard to ignore the man squirming like a little girl, face blushing, as he thought of getting beat up by the dark haired Vice-Admiral that threw him in the cell.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll need new pants after, we got it, let's go." The blue skinned fishman said, moving towards where she guess the exit would be.

She followed, the blond haired girl glued to her leg (she couldn't bring herself to remove the girl... from a lack of time! Totally not because she pities the little thing). The white-haired kid following behind her without a sound.

The noise of chains clicking and the heavy footsteps telling her the freak was also following.

She followed the fishman through the corridor, eventually stopping before a small three step stair and a door. Which, from the light shinning through, led outside.

The fishman took a last look back, seeing the four prisoners behind him, he smirked a pointy teeth full smirk, then turned around opening the door a single motion.

Baccarat tensed and Honey hid further behind her legs as the fishman exploded into motion, charging through the front door without a word of damn warning to his fellow escapees. The freak pushing them as he rushed after.

She was left standing before the stairway with a blond kid hiding behind her and a white-haired kid staring at her (what the hell does he even want?!), before deciding that she may as well get killed by a marine instead of reaching Mary Geoise as a slave.

Walking the small distance to the door, she expected to see growing chaos as fishman and freakman battled everyone on deck.

Instead she saw the fishman standing still, looking at the only other person standing on deck, as everyone else was either down or held by one of the many trees along the deck, held or laying immobile. Including the masochist, currently held just above her by a group of tree branches.

"HMMMMMM!" and being creepy as always.

*****Celestial Dragon Fleet, Calm Belt*** **

Okay, okay, now is the time. After all this time alone, with just Bob and his gorilla buddies terrible company as my only company, I'll finally meet people. Well, meet more people, people that wouldn't try to kill me at first sight hopefully!

I had grabbed my coat, basket v.2, through the root connected back to the island, pacified at least the entire Celestial Dragon flagship and got a bit more of a range of motion as my stab injuries continued to heal. I was completely ready for the meeting!

I felt as the soon to be ex-slaves somehow walked out of the cages I had _seen_ earlier on through my plants connected to the ship. Felt as the five slowly approached the door and-

The door suddenly exploded into motion, a blue fishman imitating Sonic as the jumped out spinning with his spiky... sword? Before stopping upon realizing everyone else on deck was already down.

The tank of a man that jumped out a second later didn't stop though, running straight towards me.

"Hey-" I dodged under a fist "I'm not-" another swinging fist "I just-" bending out of reach of a uppercut "I actua-" jumping to side to avoid a jab. I gave up on diplomacy there. The free branches of the trees around us converging on the attacking man.

He was pulled up with a strange moan, a haki covered arm broke the hold once, but as the branches kept coming stronger and kept covering him, he eventually seemed to give up? He was still fighting, but it didn't feel like he was actually fighting, he seemed to break the bonds, then purposely let the regrown branches restrain him again, but harder. Repeating in an endless cycle.

Putting the strange moaning man behind, I decided to focus on my other options for socializing.

The fishman was still standing, sword/club thing in hand, while staring cautiously at me. A red-haired with two kids closer to door now to, the red-haired equally cautious, the little girl just seemed afraid. The white-haired kid just looked around carelessly.

The woman was recognized by one of my vague memories, the same memories that told me that the purple coloring of my arms was haki and that the trashcan tasting fruit I ate was a Devil Fruit.

Baccarat, a lieutenant of Gild Tesoro, supposedly ate the Lucky-Lucky Fruit, avoid letting her touch me as she could steal my luck, nothing much more than that on her though. Seemed a bit younger I guess.

Okay, now to make a good first impression.

"HELLO THERE! YOU GUYS WANNA SEE MY PLANTS?!"

Perfect.

Then the screaming, the shortly carrying a fat Celestial Dragon and all the other movement since being stabbed caught up to my injured kidney, a rush of blood pouring out of my mouth.

Okay, not perfect. Still decent.

* * *

**I said last chapter, but just to say it again. He didn't use the clones during the fight because he's still experimenting in it, you don't split your consciousness between two bodies mid death battle if you haven't mastered it yet. In the deck, he was already confident he had subdued everyone.**

**The SI will grow more social capable. But so far he was an amnesiac living stranded on an island with gorillas, gotta have some mental/social effects.**

**Characters shown:**

**Kisame [Naruto]: Ex-Sun Pirate Fishman, betrayed after forming his own small band of pirate fishman upon the death of Fisher Tiger, was sold to the Celestial Dragon. Uses a sword made from a very weird sea cucumber found at the bottom of the New World (Samehada), proficient in Fishman Karate. 28 years old.**

**Baccarat [One Piece]: A scammer, used her fruits power to make money and travel around the West Blue, before her luck ran out at the worst of times. Ate the Lucky-Lucky Fruit. 21 years old.**

**Dice [One Piece]: Huge masochist that entered underworld death tournaments just for the pain of his enemies attacks. Attacked a Vice-Admiral because "his attacks will feel so good", didn't work out great for him. 30 years old.**

**Kid Kimimaro [Naruto]: The nihilist sole survivor of a family of pirates that terrorized the West Blue for almost two centuries. Ate the Bone-Bone Fruit. 13 years old.**

**Honey Queen [One Piece]: Normal child that ate a devil fruit while 5 years old, becoming the "freak" of her home village. Captured by the Celestial Dragon. Ate the Jelly-Jelly Fruit. 10 years old.**

**The MC is currently 23 years old. This one is a probably but still maybe on crewmember, might just be the "captured CP-0 agent":**

**Akame [Akame ga Kill]: Child soldier, daughter of a pirate captured alongside said pirate during her infancy, trained since 4 year old to be a Cipher Pol agent, protecting the current Celestial Dragon as her second CP-0 mission. Previously a CP-6 agent since 10 years old. 17 years old.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I imagine and hope everyone reading this knows it. But. Geppo = Jumping on the air technique. Rankyaku = Air blade kick technique. Tekkai = Iron body technique. Kami-e = Body like paper technique.  
  
Chapters normally won't be this long. But there were two scenes happening simultaneously, and what already ended up more confusing than I wanted, would just make absolutely no sense as two chapters.  
  
I rewrote this a few times during insomnia fueled creativity bursts. If you see a continuation error or a phrase that just doesn't make sense where it's, please point it out.**

* * *

***Celestial Dragon Flagship, The Scylla. 8 years before canon start.***  
  
Kisame stood still with Samehada at ready, his awareness placed the woman and the kids behind him and the masochist still squirming above them. The edge of his vision placed the fat form of the Celestial Dragon trashing on the ground, suffocating with a face full of vines nearby two people, a man and a woman, both in strange robes and masks, chained down by vines growing into the deck floor besides the squirming Dragon.  
  
Regardless of the Celestial Dragon that he really, _really_ wanted to murder close by, the swordsman forcefully kept sword and eyes pointed at the palm tree of a man currently half fallen over the ship's railing, only the back of his coat that looked like a living forest floor visible as he puked out an amount of blood that couldn't be healthy.  
  
I mean, sure, puking any amount of blood can't be healthy in the first place. But the fishman was pretty sure he saw people die of blood loss from losing less of the life fluid than this.  
  
He pushed away unneeded thoughts to focus on situation when the mass of writhing roots and grass stood to its full height, a head brown hair barely visible just above the canopy of the coat.  
  
The man was a bit leaner than Kisame, but almost twice the height of the fishman, probably a bit taller than the masochist, who was freakishly tall himself. Still, it was nothing for a man that fought Giants and met the Fishmen royal family.  
  
Still, the man was covered in plants, trees were currently holding the galley above the sea and almost everyone on deck was restrained by some form of vegetation. It didn't take a genius to understand what happened. And it took a fool to not be wary of a strange man that took on a Government fleet.  
  
"HRGNF!"  
  
The overgrown lamp post finishing coughing the last of the blood out, before turning to them with smile that normally would've just seemed awkward, now turned creepy by the blood covered teeth, mouth and neck.  
  
Even without the blood all over himself, the man already wasn't exactly looking the most stable person.  
  
A curtain of unkempt brown hair hid the sides of his head, while a shaggy beard covered most of his face, both speckled with vegetation and, currently, blood. Wearing a strangely clean pale white shirt that seemed to be moving and fur(?) covered green pants, all under a writhing forest floor that acted as a living coat.  
  
It left him looking like the mix of a tree and either a hermit, a hobo or a shipwrecked.  
  
The plantman approached, a dismissive wave of the hand making the vines holding the robed duo to take them upwards. The vines holding the probably CP-Something agents merging into one of the many trees grown around the deck. Leaving the trashing around Celestial Dragon the last Government member on deck.  
  
Hermitree didn't even look back as he crossed the distance between them in four large steps, stopping almost at Samehada's distance with the same awkward/creepy smile. Opening his mouth to-  
  
"So..."  
  
-bumble apparently, as treeperson started to say something, and then froze. Mouth closing and staring at them with the same bloody smile, now extra awkward. Kisame just stood at the best stance he could with his stiff joints and shackled hands, ready for any aggressive move.  
  
"Hmmmmmm."  
  
"HMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"  
  
Kisame wished he could say that the silence stretched when their possible savior lost his words. Unfortunately, the freak above them didn't let it be so peaceful. Moaning disturbingly as the living bonds constantly tightened and readjusted in an attempt to fully restrain the squirming masochist.  
  
"*Ahem*" The palm tree cleared his throat again. "Sorry, it just has been a while..." he began as if explaining an premature ejaculation "...But as I was saying, I'm... err...My name is..." Then he trailed off.  
  
Kisame kept waiting for a name for about two more minutes, as the treeman kept mumbling something to himself. The fishman couldn't hear all of it, but he got a few snipets, such as "I really should've picked a name before this.", to "Bob wouldn't care either way I guess. And who was I going to introduce myself to, the vines? The deathtoads?" and "Maybe I should just offer them some narcotic or hallucinogenic fruits and deal with this later."  
  
None of which sounded promising, the last sounding straight up threatening. And all reinforcing the fishman's belief on the treeman's insanity.  
  
As the treeman kept mumbling, the blueman took the opportunity to take a look at his fellow ex-slaves, still close to the door and behind him.  
  
The red-haired met his eyes, pointed stare clearly expecting him to do something. Of _course_ he had to something, it's not he was also shackled and, unlike her, had been starved and held in the same position for two weeks. Yes, _he_ had to something.  
  
Well, the tiny blond that still hadn't removed her face from behind the knees of the hag trying to push whatever is going on unto him, certainly wasn't going to be useful. The white-haired kid with dead eyes staring at nothing also didn't seem the best choice for a diplomat.  
  
So considering that the fishman was the guy already ahead of them, that engaged the other party and is currently pointing his living sword at the _situation_ , might as well be him who deals with it.  
  
Samehada hummed lowly, Kisame barely feeling the sensation through the "sword's" handle. The creature pointing out its presence and showing its support. _Ah, at least I'll always have you._  
  
Fist-fighting those strange sea-cucumbers to train his Fishman Karate remains his best life decision yet... That sounded sadder than it was supposed to.  
  
Decided internally that he would take the burden of trying to figure out what the hell is going on, the shark considered just attacking. It sure would make this headache go away for him. One way or the other.  
  
But hobo-tree over there had probably beaten up or killed the Vice-Admiral, is currently suffocating the Celestial Dragon with vines and is the reason they had this chance of escape. Might as well try to be diplomatic, the guy certainly earned it.  
  
"Well?" Asked the diplomatic wonder to the mumbling madman.  
  
"A bit hurt, but otherwise great. And you?" Answered the even greater wonder of the diplomatic stage. Truly, a meeting of the world's most eloquent.  
  
"I mean who the hell are you, dammit!" The swordsman shouts finally out of patience.  
  
"Ah! You see, my name is- HRGNF!" Treebeard started before coughing up, saying something inaudible under the cough and ignoring the jet of blood that came with it. "And as I was saying before. Do you want to see my plants? They're pretty awesome. There's also a bunch of three armed gorillas too, if that's more your thing. And a turtle, I call him Timmy."  
  
He finished the idiotic attempt at skipping past his name and went straight to pitching whatever the hell _look at my plants_ was, which Kisame still hadn't understood.  
  
But there was one thing that the fishman was certain about. They were in this sea forest with a madman. The hell was the guy talking about? The way he talked about all of that with a ear to ear wide smile, strangely happy even though they had never met each other before, also didn't help. Kisame decided to politely vocalize his doubts.  
  
"What the hell are you talking about?! Are you an idiot?!" He shouted. The split second the smile turned to frown and all the vegetation around them trembled told him it might not have been the best manner of confrontation. The fact that the frown returned to the wide smile as if nothing had happened a second later also didn't say much good about plantman's state of mind.  
  
"Oi, because of circunstances I have no idea about, I can't remember my name. And giving up on it to choose another title to represent the individual that is me is something that- SHIT!" Fortunately, the madman stopped mid rant and started staring fixedly to his left. At what? Kisame had no idea. Would bet on talking with the _voices_ or whatever madman do.  
  
Now the silence truly stretched, perhaps even the masochist was weirded out by the strange beha- "HMMMMMMMM!" Never mind, there he is.  
  
Any hope of the hobo being somewhat sociable that had not gone with the rant about him not knowing his own name, was gone as he stared determinedly at... The air? The strange sea forest? The barely visible sea beyond? A voice that wasn't really there telling him to "free them of their mortal shells"? Kisame didn't know, but his bet was on the last one, and he liked his mortal shell.  
  
"Hey, Palmtree!" The sharkman yelled out, Samehada at ready for if the world's tallest broom turned hostile.  
  
"Just wait a..." Was the barely audible response of the man that didn't bother to turn to look at Kisame when talking, stopping mid sentence to narrow his eyes at the nothing on the horizon. Well, at least no signs of hostility so far.  
  
"Wait a what?" The fishman asked. He waited a minute, two.  
  
"HMMMMM!" The constant moaning of the man with some very deep issues was his only answer.  
  
Palmtree continued looking at... The canopy of the visibly growing forest? The barely seeable sea beyond it? Somehow Kisame doubted it was either.  
  
"Wait a what?!" He asked with more force. He waited another full minute, two, half way to the third he gave up.  
  
Then the stick of a man started smiling even wider than he was before, and definitely more feral like. Kisame doubted the smile turning increasingly psychotic on the world's most expressive tree had anything to do with himself. And it also corroborated with his theory of their _savior_ just being a well placed crazy, murderous hermit.  
  
"Hey!" He tried again. He refused to be ignored on a slaver's ship by this insane looking stranger. The stranger, predictably, ignored him again.  
  
"I SAID!" He bellowed. It felt unsurprisingly good after spending the last two or so weeks gagged to a table. "HEY!" He finished eloquently entreating the stranger on the current state of affairs. No response.  
  
Well, no one can say he didn't try talking.  
  
Diplomacy failing, Kisame resorted to a method he was more familiar with, tried and true, violence. He raised and slashed down with Samehada.  
  
Its spikes were held in, so it would only smash into Palmtree, no need to kill the guy, only get his attention. He was hitting with enough strength to break boulders, but the madman should be fine, maybe it'll even knock something right in there.  
  
While he didn't expect the wall of wood that rose to from the deck to block the sword, stopping its downward motion and then growing over the sword, he wasn't surprised. He had seen the freak being stopped by the trees, he just didn't expect it to be able to grow so quickly.  
  
Now, a more sensible person might take it as a hint to give up, a more determined but rational person might try the diplomatic approach again, as he probably had his targeted attention now. Kisame just smiled a teeth full smile.  
  
Diplomacy was never his thing, and it felt like forever since he last had a proper fight.  
  
With a turn of the wrist, Samehada's spikes were covered in haki, both his and the creature's, and unfolded themselves, ripping through the wood holding it in place. Slashing sideways, the fishman destroyed most of the newly created wall in the movement, despite its awkwardness with the shackled arms.  
  
Slashing downwards he destroyed the remaining wall and lodged the sword's spikes at the deck, using them to push himself forward with the sword as a lever, bursting through the falling wooden debris and turning mid air to once again try and hit mister can't hold a conversation. Only now with Samehada's spikes unfolded, covered in haki and roaring to go.  
  
He did have Palmtree's attention now. When he finished turning, he was able to look into the now focused green eyes of the anorexic oaken tree, before a wooden fist as large as his own body burst from the figure's stretched arm straight at him, Kisame being forced to redirect his slice into an upwards slash, the haki covered spikes shaving away the hardened wood.  
  
The fishman felt the mass of wood rising from the deck floor directly beneath his still airborne form and could see the second wooden fist forming and ready to come at him.  
  
With his hands bound and unable to use proper Fishman Karate techniques, the sharkman kicked at the air, attempting to imitate the Karakusagawara Seiken. The kick, sent him flying upwards and forwards, but, unlike geppo, it also sent a shockwave below.  
  
The shockwave was not as strong as if done properly with his hands, but it was enough to destroy the deck floor and coming mass of wood beneath him. A swing of Samehada destroying the newest incoming wooden fist.  
  
Landing on the ground just above the hole created by his own kick, the fishman burst forward with another kick to the ground, sending him over the hole, flying straight towards the treeman, who was still standing in the same spot.  
  
Losing altitude before reaching his target, Kisame once again used the sword's spikes for leverage, lodging them into the deck and launching himself forward. Regaining his speed and avoiding touching the clearly hostile ground.  
  
Reaching his target, another wooden wall tried to surge beneath and in front of him, a mid air front flip while swinging Samehada destroyed both the wooden constructs in a manner that Sonic would've been proud of.  
  
He finished the flip, sword ready for the opponent in front of him and... Hadn't expected for his so far immobile opponent to have taken advantage of the wall and flip obstructing his sight to get inside of the fishman's guard.  
  
"Shi-" Kisame said while briskly trying to bring Samehada to bear, the sea creature cooperating, trying to stretch is spikes to reach the incoming threat, now much closer than expected.  
  
He wasn't able to complete the movement or his phrase though, as arms -now regular sized- burst from the Palmtree's left side, grabbing unto the mid-air turning fishman, keeping him about as restrained as he had been not an hour ago. Kisame tried one last move, putting the last of his momentum into a kick, strong enough to break through the flimsy and hastily made wood barrier and hit the side of his new captor.  
  
Despite losing most of its strength against the wooden wall, the kick seemed to still have an effect on Palmtree, as while the wooden arms held strong, the real arm let go, its owner crouching over in pain while coughing up more blood.  
  
"What is it with the kidney shots?!"  
  
Any hope of using the distraction to escape was frustrated as the mass of wooden arms still holding him in position seemed to merge together into a single large mass, which, moving as if it was liquid, proceeded to swallow sword and swordsman into the ground and mold around them to the point even Samehada's spikes couldn't move to shave away the wood.  
  
"Oh, come on! I just stopped-" *Cough, cough* *HRGHNF*. Whatever he was saying was stopped by a new rush of blood coughing. "-doing that." He finished out of air after the coughing subsided.  
  
Kisame moved his head, the only part left out of the iron like wood grasping him right now, to see Palmtree stumbling the distance to the buried fishman. A hand holding the once again bleeding cut at his kidney.  
  
Treebeard opened his mouth to say something. It's not how he figured it would go, but it seems Kisame was gonna get that conversation after all.  
  
"Aaaah!"  
  
And both froze at the shout that came from none of them. Well, Kisame freezing as much as a man buried to the neck could.  
  
They turn to it to see the red-haired of the forgotten rest of the escapees roar as she bring her iron shackles down on the vine covered face of the Celestial Dragon, who she currently held in place by being mounted over his chest. From how red the vines were, the fishman doubted it was the first hit.  
  
Further back he could see the Celestial Guards and the strange duo frozen in shock as they watched their god/charge be murdered in front of their immobile selves.  
  
Treeman and fishman watch stupefied for two more hits, the Celestial Dragon's struggle getting weaker as his face turned redder. And just as Palmtree raised his arm to do... _something_ , the next blow connected and the Dragon's skull cracked like a rotten egg, brain matter and broken bone covering the deck around the now unmoving World Noble.  
  
Kisame watching it with a confused smile, because, while he did dream of dead Celestial Dragons, he also did want to kill the asshole himself.  
  
The treeman's arm falls down, having nothing very useful to do now. And both watch quietly as the woman continued to pound the iron shackles against the corpse's broken bone and bare brain matter for a while.  
  
Eventually she stopped, panting over the exhaustion of the murder and corpse mutilation. For a long moment, the only sound was her panting of exhaustion, somehow even the moaning had quieted down. Then she recomposed herself somewhat, stood in shaky legs and turned to them.  
  
There was a moment of complete silence as Celestial Dragon killer, plantman and a buried fish's head stared at each other. No one knowing what to say.  
  
"HMMMMMMM!" Then the freak put his two cents into the conversation, removing most of the tension.  
  
With a pained sigh, filled with clear exhaustion and frustration, plantman slid down a wooden wall that wasn't there a second before and sat on a puff of green grass that also wasn't there before while holding his bleeding kidney. He then rested his head on the wall and summarized the situation.  
  
"Fuck."  
  
…  
  
There was a long moment of tense silence, well, besides the now unfortunately familiar moaning. All parties somewhat busy recovering. Plant and fishman from the short fight which none were in condition to have, and the red-haired from the exhaustion of murder and mauling by shackle clubbing.  
  
The escapees looked warily at their closed eyed possible savior, a savior that they had now attacked and killed a valuable hostage of. Or that was what the blood-covered, blood-haired Celestial Dragon killer was worried about. Kisame just wished that Palmtree either killed him or released him already, his nose was itching.  
  
Honey Queen was off to the side looking into the caved-in mess that was once the face of the World Noble that had murdered her mother in front of her, various complex feelings running through her. Kimimaro just stared at nothing by the door, waiting for them to solve whatever was going on.  
  
"I'm almost sure that human interaction shouldn't be this hard. The marines I kinda understood, there was a Celestial Dragon there, and my memories do place the World Nobles as cartoonishly evil enough to just enslave the first random person running at them in the middle of the sea and the Marines as whipped enough to obey."  
  
The plantman began to rant. Whatever the hell cartoonishly was supposed to mean, Kisame had no idea. But it seemed to be part of an insult against Celestial Dragons and the Marines, so he was all for it.  
  
"But tell me, why the hell would attack the guy that clearly both helped you escape and had beaten the marine contingent that was keeping you imprisoned?!"  
  
He stopped after the monologue and question, the following silence stretched once more. The fishman stayed quiet because he knew that his answer of "It was the fastest and most exciting way of solving whatever was going. Also, was pretty sure you were going to kill us to appease the voices." would only be aggravating. And he kind of wanted to see where this was going before being killed.  
  
He had no idea why the red-haired wasn't saying anything herself, probably unused to the whole situation and having to deal with dangerous situation without whatever her power was. Or dealing with the shackled hand murder and whatever caused it in the first place. Or just didn't know how to deal with insane plant people. Who knew?  
  
The silence stretched on for another moment, then thin oaken tree sighed again and the frown on his face deepened. Kisame had to stretch his half buried neck to keep Palmtree in his vision as the man stood up, a patch of grass already covering the wounded kidney area. And the talking tree concluded with a frown.  
  
"Screw all of this. I'm going to take a nap, I'll deal with this tomorrow."  
  
Not a second after he finished, the ship lurched and shook. Kisame couldn't see much buried as he was, but he felt the ship tilting and moving through his wooden prison, and heard the equally high screams of the little blond girl and many of the still conscious marines.  
  
Even buried as he was, the fishman was able to see as the ship was lifted by some underwater roots that probably made the bedfloor for the mid-sea forest he had seen earlier. Coming to a stop 90° side ways some meter above the sea.  
  
He had seen the kids falling to their potential doom earlier, along with the Celestial Dragon's corpse. The blond screaming in fear and the white-haired accepting his fall to death with the same apathy as he did everything else. The red-haired woman had stumbled away from his line of sight when the ship began to rise, so no idea what happened there.  
  
Well, the kids and even the CD's corpse had been grabbed by vines grown from the deck, so hopefully she didn't fall to her death. Kisame didn't have to worry about that, buried to the neck into the deck as he was. Not that falling to the sea, Sea-King covered or not, would worry the fishman in first place.  
  
Stretching his neck, he could barely see Palmtree, frown still on his face as he stood on the sideways surface, feet merged into the deck floor as he looked at -Kisame followed the treeman's line of sight- an enormous tree sticking out off the sea far in the horizon.  
  
On the edge of his vision, the fishman could see another of the marine ships also raised above the sea by roots, much like their own. Tilted completely sideways, with the deck also facing the horizon instead of the sky.  
  
There was another moment of silence, and another sigh. Then the ship suddenly lurched forward quicker than it ever could do it naturally, the roots dragging back the small fleet through the air at almost Mach speeds.  
  
"AAAAAAAAH!" Came the louder collective scream of the blond kid, the red-haired woman and most of the marines and Celestial Guards. Kisame was not that affected, being used to such speeds when moving underwater.  
  
The far away tree quickly grew in size and proximity, soon enough a island was barely visible underneath it, mostly covered by the tree's surface visible roots. One of which the fishman noted was stretched and divided into the four titanic _branches_ currently pulling in the Government ships.  
  
The screams reached their apex as the ships were dragged deck first into one of the few areas of the island clear of roots, showing no signs of stopping.  
  
It stopped suddenly, the vines releasing everyone at the same time as the ships opened up as if bisected, spilling out everyone beneath the deck of the four dragged ships.  
  
The bound fishman was spilled out with a block of hardened wood still stopping any movement below the neck. A block of wood with a handle sticking out of it throwing Samehada after its owner in a free fall, along with the rest of the ships' passengers.  
  
Kisame looked around as his block of wood twirled mid air in a free fall to his death. He saw all of the marines, slaves and servants alike scream in terror, close their eyes in fear or stare unblinking in the face of their incoming doom.  
  
Then Kisame looked down again, and was meet by a large green mass that wasn't there before. What was once a sparse green land of a beach, was now a large puffy green mass. That was approaching fast.  
  
As the fishman entered the mass face first, in a way that any relevant impact could easily break his neck. He was surprised to sink deep into the green thing, it was like jelly, but surprisingly comfortable and soothing, it was strangely freeing, as if he was no longer bound-  
  
A quick movement of the arms told him he truly was no longer in a block of wood, the only restrain left being the reinforced shackles still keeping his arms together.  
  
He had barely noticed the wooden prison dissolve into the jelly like green goo. Distracted by the soothing sensation it brought on his battered self, still feeling the hurt from the time bound by Celestial Dragon, the fight that lead to it and the fight that came after. The goo made it as if all the injuries, aches and stresses were washed away.  
  
Shaking his head to regain some motor control, as all his muscles were too relaxed, the fishman grabbed Samehada's handle, who fortunately fell nearby, but fell asleep because of the relaxants, kicked at the jelly like substance and burst from the green goo in a single explosion of movement. Landing feet first on a somewhat sandy ground with some light grass covering it.  
  
A look around gave him a view at a dense forest entrance, to which Palmtree was currently walking towards. Kisame knew he had to stop the guy to... he himself was not sure yet if it was to apologize or continue the fight.  
  
"HE-" Either way, his third attempt at a "hey" was stopped by a pillar bursting from the ground beneath him. More specifically, directly between the fishman's mid-step spread legs. The shark fell to the ground with a high pitch squeak, shackled arms holding his injured nuts.  
  
Guess Palmtree wasn't in a talking mood. No idea why. Maybe it was the unprovoked attack, or the kick to the injured kidney. Probably both.  
  
When Kisame came to it -and he was sure he passed out there for a second-, Palmtree had disappeared, leaving the fishman alone at the beach under the shadow of the giant green goo puff.  
  
A soft _thud_ on the side made the fishman turn, doing so just in time to see the reason of a second thud. As a marine was ejected from the green goo into the sand not that far from the fishman, directly on top of another marine, probably ejected moments earlier. Both unconscious, probably from the relaxants, and still bound by vines. In the time he took to observing this, another restrained marine was ejected.  
  
A dull thud sounded out from a different direction, Kisame turning to its source, seeing not a marine, but a dark haired woman that he had no idea who it was. But from her belly dancer cloths and fascination with touching the strangely more pale neck, and knowing the ship they came from, he could make an educated guess.  
  
Kisame watched, as the woman started crying while holding he pale, collar free neck. Then he looked at his shackles. He tried forcing his arms apart, the inhuman strength of the fishman's muscles doing nothing to the reinforced steel.  
  
He watched as another freed slave was ejected, landing on his feet, stumbling and falling on his ass. It was an old man, mostly bald, though with shaven short dark hair at the sides. He looked at his hands, held his neck. There was a moment of silence, before the old man started crying, yelling and dancing the sand.  
  
He looked at the old man dancing like he was twenty, then he looked back at his shackles. He tried harder to force his arms apart, Samehada trying to help, its tip opening up to show a large mouth filled with forearm sized teeth and it proceed to munch at the shackles. Again with no visible effect on the reinforced steel, not that it was a surprised, he had tried the same as soon as he had gotten the sword back.  
  
Then came the red-haired, the first of released he did know, who fell face first into the sand, getting up to take a quick look around the beach, before realizing she had gotten up with her unbound hands. She looked at her unshackled arms for the first time in almost three weeks. She moved her hands and wrists, enjoying the movement that had been restrained for so long, quietly smiling and crying, seated on the sandy grasslands.  
  
And the fishman stopped struggling and now just stared at his still shackled arms, the living sword still trying its best to bite the restrains away. _Such a good boy._  
  
It was pretty obvious that the green goo was doing something. So he stuck he removed his arms from Samehadas' teeth and stuck it back in whatever the green jelly was. He waited a bit, there was a soothing sensation, but his arms remained bound.  
  
He removed his arms from the goo and looked deep into the shackles, the shackles that he had tried to cut or break first thing after escaping his cell, and failed despite Fishman Karate, Samehada and haki. He looked around the growing party of crying/laughing freed slaves and then looked again at his bound arms.  
  
Then looked around the beach and the deep, vast forest growing under the roots of the gigantic tree. No clue or idea of where Palmtree could have gone or where the shackles' keys were.  
  
And if he found Palmtree, he would have to somehow convice the hermit to free him, the same hermit that he attacked two seconds ago, simply because it was easier than really trying to have a conversation or some patience.  
  
And, if he wanted to find the shackles' keys... He looked behind at the pile of wood from shipwreck of the four ships thrown together at the beach after its passengers were unloaded.  
  
"Crap."  
  
  
 ***Moments earlier, at one of the Marine Warships on the Celestial Dragon's escort fleet.***  
  
  
Rear-Admiral Jonathan flew through the air in a rapid sequence of geppos, arriving at the airspace above the warship closest to his own, rankyaku bisecting a giant thorny root growing directly from the deck that was about to either hold or impale the lieutenant of the ship.  
  
He geppoed forward once more, reaching the ship's port side, another rankyaku cutting off the large root connected to the ship just beneath the sea.  
  
It wouldn't stop the plants, as even now the root already grew back its lost portion and was grabbing onto the ship once again, but until it connected to the ship again, it stopped the plants from growing from the ship, giving every marine a singular target. He had learned this while fighting off the vegetation of the previous warship.  
  
"All cannons fire at the shadow under the ship's port side!" He yelled while jumping on air after a third rankyaku to cut the regrown, reaching root. He didn't have to explain what shadow, the root was gigantic enough one just couldn't not see.  
  
The same lieutenant that Jonathan had saved a second ago was the first to rush to the order, reaching and operating one of the normally two men manned marine standard three barreled canon by himself.  
  
The Rear-Admiral landed on the ships railing, looking on as the mostly already re-regrown tip of the Sea King sized root was blown to bits by three cannon shots as it tried approaching the warship.  
  
As they no longer needed to struggle to keep back the plants growing from directly under them, the seamen on deck rushed to follow the lieutenant example, manning the various side cannons and the forward three barrel cannon to fire upon the approaching roots.  
  
It wasn't a lasting solution, but now that the roots' explosive growth wasn't a surprise, they could keep it at bay, at least for a while.  
  
Jonathan observed from the railing he was still crouched on as the root repeatedly rushed at them and was blown back by the warship's cannons.  
  
A throat clearing noise to his side made him turn his head, putting him face to face with sideburns. It was the lieutenant he had saved just a minute earlier, rough features barely visible beneath the light brown muttonchops sideburns that invaded most of his face.  
  
The lieutenant had left the three barreled cannon to the seamen, as most more experienced and well trained marines gathered around the Rear-Admiral at the portside, ready to fight the attacking vegetation.  
  
And lieutenant sideburns was apparently chosen as the speaker for the ship's elite force.  
  
"Lieutenant Drake, reporting, sir! Captain Magnard and Lieutenant Commander Binne, were incapacitated by the roots, sir! Me and Lieutenant Graz are currently the highest ranking marines still capable of fighting from the ship's crew, sir! We've enough ammunition for 15 more minutes of constant fire, sir!"  
  
Sideburns, apparently Drake, shouted out in a quick succession of news, all while standing in a stiff, text-book salute.  
  
Jonathan had more than enough experience with the overly serious and high strung types of marines during his two years under the now Admiral Sakazuki. He never liked dealing with them that much, annoying them is amazingly fun though. Unfortunately, now was not the time for playing.  
  
The Rear-Admiral held the frown from his face, he swears he could hear the voice of Sakazuki in the back of his head. _Close your emotions, steel your face, a leader must never show doubt or weakness._  
  
He hadn't liked Magnard, the man was an adept follower of Absolute Justice, but he was still the man's superior officer, the commander of the fleet the captain's warship was part of, he was responsible for getting the man alive through this tour. And he failed.  
  
He didn't know much about Binne, just seeing the lieutenant commander in the company of his captain, but he seemed like a nice guy. Who Jonathan had also failed.  
  
He swallowed the sigh that wanted to escape. At least it was good to know about how much ammo and time they have. 15 minutes should be enough. Not letting any of his inner monologue show, he turned to the contingent.  
  
"Ready the lifeboats, you're abandoning ship and gathering with other rescued marines at my ship further back. Everyone who knows geppo is using it instead of the boats." He said, pointing at his own ship in the distance.  
  
A mix of his own officers, the warship's cannons and the officers he had rescued from the other ship earlier keeping the vegetation at bay.  
  
"Sir..." Lieutenant Sideburns seemed to want say something, but it was stuck on his throat, the man having no idea on how to talk back to a superior officer "We must advance, join with the Vice-Admirals to protect the Celestial Dragon, sir!"  
  
Ah, yes, that cluster fuck. _Damn Celestial Dragons._  
  
"Vice-Admirals Onigumo and Comil are in there, along with Cipher Pol agents." He answered without removing his eyes from the continuously growing and blown up root. "Either they will deal with it and we won't be needed. Or, if they can't solve whatever this is, going in there would be signing the death warrant of everyone in the ships."  
  
"But... Sir!" The lieutenant tried to protest, stumbling on his own words. Sideburns's marine training and _respect_ for orders leaving him both unable to just give up on a World Noble and unable to go against his superior officer.  
  
Jonathan didn't known much about the lieutenant. The man was one of various officers that made up the small fleet given to the -at the time- newly promoted Commodore for his hunting duties on the West Blue.  
  
The red-haired marine had been trying, but still only really knew the seamen that worked directly on his ship. Between getting used to his new position of command, his various standard duties and being ordered into escorting the world's most fat Dragon, he just hadn't had the time.  
  
Still _,_ until recently Jonathan had never been happier with his work life. After two years of violence and bloodshed through the Four Blues and the Grandline, he had finally left the shadow of Akainu behind, sailing off as a Commodore commanding his own small three ships fleet.  
  
With it, he traveled around the West Blue, hunting pirates and helping along villages for almost a year now. Being recently promoted to Rear-Admiral after the arrest of Big Nose Boe, a ruthless scumbag for his rather comedic name. It was exactly what he had signed up for.  
  
Recently he and his fleet had spent almost 2 months working alongside the rescued villagers of what was once a pirate base. After putting Big Nose in chains and sending him away to Impel Down with the fourth ship of his small fleet, the rest of the fleet stayed at the village that had been taken by the pirate and built a fort there to help defend it. Proper Marine work.  
  
He was on the way to finish his paper work to get some man power for the new fort, hopefully officers to train the natives to hold the fortification, maybe turn it into a proper Marine base eventually, when he stumbled upon the two giant Adam Wood ships on the sea current back to the G-16 base.  
  
Jonathan knew various things the World Government did that he disagreed with, mostly about its ruthless approach to pirates and other dissenters. When he saw his old senior fellow student, Onigumo, on the ship's bow, he expected another disappointing act such as burning an entire village of innocents to flush out an especially dangerous pirate or revolutionary.  
  
Until recently, he did not believe the Marines could get lower than that.  
  
Then, he met his first Celestial Dragon. Jonathan was still coming to terms that it was that type of people that made the ruling class of the World Government he is helping keep in power. Years of training to enforce and spread a world order that was commanded by... _that_.  
  
Luckily he had met up with the Dragons ships close to end of his "hunting" trip, with the Noble just taking his fleet along to make a more showy return to Mary Geoise. So he didn't have to participate in the enslavement of anyone, just forcibly ignore the slaves he could _hear_ suffering at the edge of his Observation.  
  
Shaking his head to clear away his moral dilemmas for now he focused back on the predatory flora.  
  
"I'm not letting another Marine die in here, now get the damn lifeboats on the water and to my ship! I'll assume any responsibility for it!" Thankfully, the lieutenant complied, running off with another yell of "Sir!".  
  
He stayed facing the incoming and blown away root, following the ship's evacuation through his Observation.  
  
It was going well, the crew was efficient and well trained, all boats were in position and most of the crew was already at a lifeboat in less then five minutes. Just the cannon operators and the ship's strongest fighters remained, along with himself, those that would leave last to help cover the retreat.  
  
He _heard_ as lieutenant sideburns came back after supervising the evacuation. Arriving along with a man with long pale blond hair and half of his lower left face missing, currently holding two cutlasses.  
  
By his coat and the proximity of the two, Jonathan would guess this was the Lieutenant Graz that Sideburns mentioned earlier.  
  
"Every seaman is on a ship and on their to your ship, along with most officers, sir!" Sideburns shouted out, louder than strictly needed. Half-face just looked around quietly.  
  
Not that there was a need for the report. The Rear-Admiral could feel that the only marines still on ship were a few officers manning the forward and rear main cannons along with some of the portside cannons. The strongest, that stayed behind to form a rear guard.  
  
Nodding in understanding, he turned to the officer, intent on telling him to dismiss every officer that wasn't proficient at geppo in a second wave of evacuation on the last lifeboat left. Even if they were stronger, what he needed was the mobility to escape the ship after there was no longer fire power enough to keep the roots at bay.  
  
Then the root, and all the vegetation around them, started to shake. And, most importantly, stopped advancing at them. Jonathan took less than a second to take advantage of the opportunity.  
  
"Get every officer left on the boat, now!" He roared at the Lieutenants, while running towards the rear main cannon, the farthest from their position.  
  
Fortunately the lieutenants were quick, by the time he had gotten the two Ensigns to the lifeboats, Graz was already there with 3 other Ensigns and one Lieutenant Junior. And he could see Drake approaching with 4 Ensigns, one Lieutenant Junior and... 2 seamen that should've been evacuated on the first wave.  
  
Not questioning it, he shouted for anyone not confident in their geppo to get in the lifeboat, anticipating the two seamen that did so, but he was surprised when two of the Ensigns also didn't know the technique. He had expected all the ranked officers to have at least the basics of geppo, soru and rangyaku down, they were the most useful techniques for common marine work and their manner of practice was an overall great leg, center and endurance training.  
  
Sakazuki was wrong about a lot of things, but his disappointment with the basic marine training wasn't one of them. Something Jonathan had realized more and more during his first leadership role in the West Blue. Shaking his head to keep unnecessary thoughts out, though deciding to increase the Rokushiki drills of his crew afterwards, the Rear-Admiral threw the Ensigns after the seamen.  
  
It took little less than four minutes to gather the remaining skeleton crew, an almost four minutes during which the roots, so far relentless in their attacks, did nothing but shake and rattle in the background.  
  
He moved to the side of the last lifeboat connected to ship by ropes, ignoring Lieutenant Sideburns's "Sir?", the Rear-Admiral did a handstand, pulling in his knees and resting the soles of both his feet in the small boat's side. And kicked it away with legs strong enough to keep geppoing for days, the smaller vessel flying as if it was shot from a cannon, but spinning out of control like a boomerang, he hadn't meant for that last part... Oops?  
  
Getting up to see the rest of the marines staring opened jawed at him. Ah, the innocence of not having seeing the truly freakish marines and pirates out there yet, he lost that when he was taken in by the Red Hound.  
  
Ignoring their awe and the screams of fear and desperation from the marines holding for dear life at the tiny boat twirling like a spinning top through the air, he turned to order the staring to marines to get geppoing, but stopped before he could he say anything and flashed behind Sideburns, a haki strengthened punch sending away the root growing, once again, from the deck.  
  
As if that was an unseen signal, the vegetation around them went back to growing, moving and attacking the ships occupants.  
  
"Go!" He roared at the marines, a sweep of a haki covered leg creating an arc of cutting wind that destroyed the incoming mass of branches and vines. "Get to the Last Summer and tell it to get going full speed as far as it can from this. I'll reach it later."  
  
Not giving times for the other marines to react, he jumped up, and came down with a front flip kick, the resulting blade of wind cutting away the part of the deck the lower ranked officers had been standing. The marines on deck scattered, an Ensign with way too shaky of a geppo, but he would have to make do.  
  
Overseeing his subordinates steadily moving away from the reach of the plants and himself, by constantly geppoing in the same place above the sinking, overgrown ship, Jonathan took a deep breath.  
  
When he reached the apex of the jump he started spinning like a demented flying spinning top, countless rankyaku blades chopping the nearby vegetation and destroying most of the overgrown warship.  
  
Turning mid-air to fall feet first into one of the larger pieces of wreckage from the torn down warship in the path between the hostile flora and his ship that currently the crew of three marine warships.  
  
He expected to need to defend against the quickly regrowing roots. Instead they stayed in place, he did not need to contemplate why. A second after the attacking roots stopped mid-air and mid-se- _wait._  
  
A chop with the creating a lesser wind blade, it was still enough to cut through the water and the thin root trying to pass deep below the surface, under the Rear-Admiral, to the overfilled ship in the distance. He could only tell because of Observation.  
  
It was also Observation that told of the ship turning away from the trapped fleet and start paddling at full speed. The officers had arrived with his orders.  
  
It was also what allowed him to notice the body... growing from the wreckage to his left?  
  
He looked to see a man finish rising from another large piece of wreckage, much like his own current platform, only covered in vegetation. There were even strange flowers growing on it, considering his last hour experiences with flora, he was avoiding those at any cost.  
  
The man finished rising from the wreckage, the best word to describe him would be overgrown. He stood at almost twice the height of the Rear-Admiral, with a curtain of brown hair reaching almost his knees and a shaggy beard covering most of his face, a large smile barely visible under it. All speckled with vegetation.  
  
The marine stood still facing the strange man, ready for an attack by him or the surrounding plants. But what he needed was to gain time for his ship to distance itself from whatever this was. So he needed to stall.  
  
"Hello, nice weather we're having, no?" Not knowing what to say to stall a hermit while standing in the middle of a warship debris, he went with the classic.  
  
"THANK YOU!" He did not expect the man to be so into a talk about the weather. "I just wanted some uncomplicated small chat, but those other marines didn't want to talk at all, and the escapee slaves ask some difficult questions, like what's my name and the such."  
  
The man continued, with such happiness and excitement that Jonathan actually believed that they might be able to solve this without a fight.  
  
"We're going to have such fun useless conversations after I capture you." And there goes his hopes.  
  
"Well, and how about you not capture me, and we just have a casual chat about the weather and the rising prices of the News Coos?" He offered instead.  
  
That the man seemed to be seriously considering spoke of his starvation for conversation.  
  
"Ah, I would love it, really." He started in a tone that Jonathan already recognized as rejection. "But I need as many hostages as possible. I didn't mean for all of this to happen and I want to try to negotiate with the Government to see if we can't just put this behind us. And for that I need as many hostages as I can get, especially the high ranked ones. So, how about you just come with me quietly and then we have that monotonous conversation?"  
  
Jonathan stayed quiet for a second, processing what was said and knowing that every moment he stayed distracting the plantmant was one more moment for his ship to gain distance. Observation telling him that there was no more roots trying to sneak under the water, though they were growing around him, encircling him and the plantman.  
  
"So, the others in the Celestial Dragon's ships are alive?" He asked, trying to chose his words to gain as much time as possible. "Because I found quite a few dead between the two marine ships besides my own."  
  
"Ahahaha..." The plantman laughed an awkward laugh while scratching the back of his neck. "Sorry about that, I kept the plants mostly on automatic. And while their orders were to restrain everybody, they are not the best at the not realizing when they're breaking something if I'm not actively controlling them."  
  
Jonathan forcefully kept his eyebrow from twitching and ignored the returning awkward laugh. _So many marines, dead for such a stupid damn reason._ Then he realized the man hadn't answered his question.  
  
"But the marines and guards on the Celestial Dragon ships, are they alive?" The two Adam Wood ships were the center of the forest and the only ones he couldn't –and neither wanted or tried to- reach.  
  
"Well... The Celestial Dragon is alive?" The plantman said, though with the tone of a question.  
  
"And the others?" Jonathan insisted on the ones he actually cared about.  
  
"Almost everyone is alive. One Celestial Guard I... might'veheldwrongandbrokehisneck" He said too quickly. "And spider-man, that I think was Onigumo, I just couldn't catch alive." He said, still with an awkward smile, despite the talk about his latest murders.  
  
Now Jonathan didn't keep the frown from his face, he might've disliked his fellow Sakazuki student, but he didn't wish death on Onigumo.  
  
"So, you've attacked a Government fleet and killed a Vice-Admiral, and now you expect to negotiate an amnesty? The Government won't negotiate with pirates." He said resolutely.  
  
"I'm not a pirate! I was just at the wrong place, was attacked and had to defend myself." He said, using the captured pirate classic excuse #31.  
  
There was an awkward silence as Jonathan just looked cynically at the fleet killer. Whose smile had turned even awkwarder.  
  
"So, no chance for you to come without a fight?" The man asked the frowning marine, to break the silence. The less awkward and more resigned smile now on his face told Jonathan that he already knew the answer.  
  
The Rear-Admiral thought about just attacking the Vice-Admiral killer, but his objective was to stall for time, the more the conversation stretched, the farther his ship got.  
  
"Would you take such a offer from an unknown attacker?" He answered instead.  
  
The silence was answer enough. And the more the silence went on, the more time it gave for his ship to get away.  
  
Unfortunately, the floralman also seemed to realize this to, as with a mumbled curse he turned to the direction where his ship was sailing, already being just barely visible in the horizon. And a rush of roots, branches and vines came at the Rear-Admiral from all sides, a good deal of the floral mass rushing pass the marine at the ship in the distance.  
  
Jonathan dodged the rushing roots in a series of geppos, reaching higher and higher, until he got out of the reach of the roots, at least for a few seconds, as it grew the necessary height.  
  
During the small two seconds reprieve, the marine did a cartwheel at the air, a large rankyaku blade rushing down, cutting all the vegetation in its path until it split open the sea, cutting away the plants that tried to ignore him for the ship.  
  
Rankyaku always was his specialization amongst the Six Powers, and it was certainly proving its use now.  
  
Still, cut from source, his Observation told him that quite a few tips of the severed roots continued swimming at the ship in the distance. Worryingly, as they hadn't done that before. But plantman did say something about they being lesser when not directly controlled.  
  
He turned mid-air to send two rankyaku blades at the swimming roots, destroying 5 of them, but regrettably, it left him unable to focus on stopping the growth of the plants focusing on him.  
  
Thus, he was barely able to twist mid-air, escaping a root that almost pierced through his left side, leaving a small gash through flesh and cloth as it scrapped by the Rear-Admiral's left side. He was sure the crew could deal with the small pieces of swimming root that got away.  
  
Before he could try to geppo away from the thousands of writhing roots rising from the seafloor to catch his flying form, all his muscles locked up as a explosion pain ran through his body, originating from the small scratch at his left ribs.  
  
Forcefully making his body move, more through Life-Return than any force of will, the marine did three geppos, getting as much distance from the roots and altitude as he could. Then he closed his eyes and focused on his breathing while letting his body fall to the mass of reaching roots.  
  
He felt his entire body and system through the first breath, he found the invading toxins spreading throughout his body in the second, he gathered it in the third and finally spit out a blob of purple after the fourth breath. Simultaneously turning to face the approaching mass of roots as his free fall reached its destination.  
  
Instead of another rankyaku or getting distance with geppo, Jonathan faced the roots head on as he fell, a haki covered palm ready behind him as he approached the predatory vegetation.  
  
The moment he got into arms reach of the closed root, he palm-striked it, the haki covering the palm spreading to and into the plants, causing the entire floral superstructure to burst as if an overfilled balloon.  
  
Falling once more on the same piece of wreckage, he turned to where his Observation told him the man was still standing. Now with a wide smile looking more psychotic than awkward.  
  
"Oh, I didn't know there were three Vice-Admirals here. I know the Celestial Dragons are important, but three of you in a single fleet is kind of overkill, no?" The smiling plant said.  
  
"Not a Vice-Admiral yet." Jonathan answered, ignoring the fact that the fleet being defeated proved that even if he was a Vice-Admiral, it definitely wouldn't have been overkill. "I'm Rear-Admiral Jonathan, and I won't let you get pass this point." He said seriously.  
  
"Wait, Jonathan?!" He did not expect the plantman exclamation of surprise at his identity, Jonathan wasn't that famous and he was pretty sure he never met the amalgamation of floral life that he was currently fighting.  
  
"You're like my favorite marine from the series, didn't recognize you with the thinner mustache and lack of goatee and sideburns. And you guys really should have better rank identification though. How the hell am I supposed to know your rank besides power level?" Did that guy just insult his mustache and said he should have sideburns? If it wasn't for the fact they were already enemies, they would've become such after that.  
  
There was a quiet moment as Jonathan was not sure what to answer to that insanity, then the hermit remembered the Rear-Admiral's ship was getting even further away.  
  
"Oh, shit." The man said and burst into motion, jumping from his platform at the red-haired marine's direction.  
  
Jonathan sent an rankyaku blade at the airborne plantman, who just crossed his arms, covered in the familiar purplish black of haki, and burst through the blade, uncrossing his arms to punch at the marine.  
  
The Rear-Admiral jumped away from the floating debris, his opponents haki infused punch breaking away the wreckage. An explosion at the bottom of his feet keeping the plantman from falling into the sea.  
  
The red-haired thought it was geppo for a second, but as the explosions continued, with the man being thrown around, clearly having no idea on how to keep balance when doing whatever he was doing, Jonathan realized it was literally small explosions coming from small spheres growing from his soles.  
  
The Rear-Admiral came down from his jump on another piece of wreckage, closer to the main cut carcass of the warship. And sent another air blade at his enemy.  
  
Though he couldn't balance himself mid-air, the man was able to break away a second rankyaku blade with a haki covered arm, before he pointed both feet to the sky while facing directly in Jonathan's directions.  
  
The following explosions were bigger than any before then, sending the plantman flying like a missile at the Rear-Admiral, who rather easily dodged to the side with kami-e , the human shaped missile going through where he was a second a go, breaking through Jonathan's newest foothold and going straight at the sea.  
  
There was a moment of quietness as Jonathan stood in the sinking wreckage, feeling through Observation as the man sunk deeper under water. _So it was a fruit ability user... Well, that's a dumb way to die._  
  
Before he could relax, he felt as the man suddenly missile(d) himself once again, bursting from the water almost directly under the marine, forcing him to once again leave his platform in a series of geppos as the floating piece of wood was broken away. Ending up standing on the overgrown corpse of the mostly cut away ship.  
  
He looked on as the man seemed to... stand on water? No, his Observation told him of the thin branches growing under the man's feet, connected all the way to the gigantic roots in the background and holding him above the water.  
  
"Ah, come on man, just let me capture you. I gotta things to do, ex-slaves to talk to." The attacker whined.  
  
The aforementioned roots stopping their passiveness and converging on the destroyed vessel and its one Rear-Admiral occupant.  
  
He got ready for the coming vegetation, before he barely saw a group of grenades at the edge of his vision, and a explosion englobed most of the left side vegetation. He got ready for the rest of the plant life, before a coated marine with long blue hair and mustache burst into existence in a geppo at his right side, showing up between the red-haired Rear-Admiral and the vegetation, a movement of his rapier like sword sending a blade of wind that shredded the vegetation.  
  
Then lieutenants Graz and Drake settled at his left, and Captain Lionel to his right.  
  
"What are you guys doing here? You should be with the shi-" He started, before being cut by his insubordinate subordinates.  
  
"With all due respect sir, the ship is already far away enough we should be able to escape. We're not leaving you here if we can avoid it." Answered the gentlemanly captain, twirling his mustache's tip with one hand and holding his rapier at ready in the other.  
  
A captain that really shouldn't be here as, without him on the ship and with Magnard dead, he was the commanding officer of the small fleet (now single overcrowded ship). Still, now was not the time to deal with this.  
  
The most important part is that the ship is far enough. So he doesn't need to win, just disengage and manage to escape. But how would they-  
  
He was forced to stop his line of thought and dodge to side as a thin branch connected to the wreckage they were on, making the floating piece of wood start growing wooden hands from its floor, the marines scattering with geppo. A grenade from Drake destroying the piece of wood they had been standing on.  
  
A tower of wood snaked its way up the sky in the direction of the Rear-Admiral, ignoring the rest of the marines, kept in check by various smaller branches and vines attacking them.  
  
A rankyaku cut the incoming pillar in half, but both sides continued to snake up separately, meeting to try and stab the marine between them, Jonathan dodging with a use of geppo. But he wasn't prepared for the plantman to burst from the pillar at his direction.  
  
He was barely able to put up a haki infused guard to defend against the purplish punch aimed at his face. Being forced from the air by the deceptively thin arms of his opponents.  
  
Turning mid air to land on his feet, the marine crashed into another piece of wreckage, it sinking soon as it wasn't ready for the sudden impact. He used the half of a second he of reprieve to send a burst of armament haki up the arm that had been hit, bursting the vines that had been growing from the spot of the punch.  
  
As soon as he freed his arm, he was forced to jump away again, as the plantman also crashed into the wreckage. Instead of sinking with the second sudden impact, a small forest quickly grew from the piece of wood, its trees and every branch reaching for the airborne Rear-Admiral.  
  
A quick series of five rankyakus cut away most of the forest and its birthplace, forcing the plantman away, now by being pulled by a cord connected to his back and an unseeable underwater root.  
  
The vine cord pulled the plantman away, then sent him at full speed at the airborne red-haired, being stopped midway by the blue-haired marine showing up between them in another burst of geppo and soru, showing up in front of the plantman with a half-raised, haki covered sword at ready.  
  
Jonathan was able to see the surprise on the plantman's face and the attempt of the vines cords to pull him back. Before he was cut in half by the captain's sword.  
  
There was no rush of blood as he expected, but a haki cut like that would kill away most Logias. Taking half a second to feel around the vegetation, feeling the many hostile plants, but no sign of the plantman himself, the Rear-Admiral turned to the other officers.  
  
"Let's get out of here, geppo to the ship!" He roared, the officers took a second, still looking warily at their surroundings "Quickly now!"  
  
As the officers hesitation stopped they were airborne and in the direction of the by now not even in visual range ship.  
  
Three jumps in, almost outside of the forest, Jonathan felt the danger through his still on Observation. Geppoing to Captain's Lionel side, he pulled the mid-geppo officer out of the sky, just in time to avoid the pod that shot from the forest like a bullet. Exploding in a purple cloud, which the marines were outside the range of.  
  
Feeling the by now familiar presence, Jonathan turned with a rankyaku, sending the air blade at the somehow not dead plantman being pushed after them by the many vines at his back.  
  
The enemy broke through the blades once again, but the Rear-Admiral came to expect it by now, taking advantage of the locked movement and lack of visibility to enter the plantman's guard when he crossed his haki infused arms to take on the air blade.  
  
Inside his enemies guard, Jonathan rested the hand of a haki covered left arm at his enemies chest, ignoring the probing vines that came from his target's chest but were unable to pierce through the haki. And remembered his short training with the Fleet Admiral. _Buddha's Palm._  
  
With a slight push of the hand and a great burst of haki, the plantman and most of the floral life behind him exploded, a hand shaped print showing up at the sea beneath, before being covered by the returning water.  
  
The tired Rear-Admiral almost fell to the water along with the wooden debris, but was catched by Lieutenant sideburns.  
  
As the trio of marines geppoed away, the Rear-Admiral, carried like a sack of potatoes, kept his eyes on the even now regrowing sea forest.  
  
Seeing the strange man shaped plant creature reforming itself at the wreckage, before looking at them, looking at the direction of the Celestial Dragon ship, looking back at them, and unmaking itself into a vines, his presence disappearing.  
  
A tense almost five minutes journey later, with the Rear-Admiral geppoing on his own feet during the middle of it, and they were back in the single surviving ship from the fleet.  
  
Lightly waving with a tired smile at the cheering marines, that now realized they truly were in the clear, Jonathan moved to sit by a small, retractable chair near the portside railing.  
  
It was his favorite spot on the ship, where he normally sat to rest and fish the more monotonous days away.  
  
Now, he collapsed at the chair, exhausted from the efforts of evacuating two ships in the middle of a hostile forest and fighting whatever the hell that plantguy was. The ship's commanding officer rested his back on the chair, took a deep breath and let out an even deeper sigh.  
  
As his muscles started to relax and he could feel himself drifting off to sleep, he was suddenly brought back to reality by shouts of "Rear-Admiral Jonathan! Rear-Admiral Jonathan!"  
  
Groggily opening his eyes, seeing a frantic marine standing besides Captain Lionel, both in front of his fishing chair, he was about to ask why the hell the men woke him up, before seeing that the screams were actually coming from the small Den-Den Mushi in the seaman's hands.  
  
The small creature currently morphed to look like it had a dark mustache and braided long goatee. Both eerily familiar.  
  
With the next scream of "Rear-Admiral Jonathan!" in the familiar voice of the Fleet-Admiral taking away any doubt on who was calling.  
  
Withholding the sigh that wanted to leave as more work came at him, he grabbed the microphone from the blue-haired marine's hands.  
  
"Rear-Admiral Jonathan here." He said calmly to the Marines' overall commanding officer. There was a brief moment of silence, before Sengoku continued.  
  
"Captain Lionel was giving me a brief report on what happened. He already gave me an overview, and I'm gratefully at least so many marines were able to be saved from the situation." Said the Buddha. "He said you're the one that fought the... plantman the most, I expect a proper report either way, but do you have anything you believe important to report now?"  
  
As one of the world's strongest men asked him this, the Rear-Admiral did a quick review of the battle in his head, now that he no longer had any more pressing concern. And one thing stuck out.  
  
"The... creature was strange. It seemed like an ability user at the beginning, but it didn't seem affected by the sea and it was able to reform even after haki based attacks."  
  
There was a silence at the deck as the eavesdropping marines and Sengoku took in the information. Before the red-haired continued.  
  
"I believe we might be dealing with a surviving Carnation." Now there wasn't silence, the crew murmuring in the background, probably none having any idea what a Carnation was supposed to mean. But he noticed that Lionel had frozen, understanding the severity of the issue. The humming from the other side of the Den-Den Mushi and the snail's frowning showed that Sengoku also wasn't happy with the news.  
  
"You've said that it came from a nearby Calm Belt island, and grew to encompass the fleet and create a forest above the sea?" The Fleet-Admiral asked, probably being informed of such details by the Captain before this talk.  
  
"Yes, sir." Was Jonathan's succinct reply.  
  
"Anything else?" Came the, as succinct reply.  
  
"It said that it had the Celestial Dragon and at least one of the Vice-Admirals still alive with him." He continued his report of the talk with the creature.  
  
"Hn." The Fleet-Admiral sounded out in consideration. "If it is a Carnation, the oldest and more intelligent of the creatures are known to be able to talk, lie and create copies of the consumed victims." Sengoku sounded out Jonathan's own thoughts on the matter.  
  
There was a moment of silence as the marines on deck waited for a decision from the Fleet-Admiral.  
  
"Do you still have your surveillance Den-Den Mushi?" Came the gruff voice.  
  
The Rear-Admiral hesitated a moment before replying, as he could already see where this was going.  
  
A surveillance Den-Den Mushi is a type of the little creature made especially to take long distance film through its eyes and replay it at real time through his ass. It was common for every patrol fleet, such as Jonathan's, to have at least one on hand.  
  
"Yes, sir." The Rear-Admiral replied again, knowing better than to lie to the top of the marines.  
  
"Good." Came the serious and determined voice of the Fleet-Admiral. "The last time one of those was set lose, most of the South Blue had to be burned to contain it. Keep it in sights, a reinforcing fleet will be in route soon, you are to merge with it and attack the island it originated from." He said with finality.  
  
The red-haired had to keep the frown off his face, he knew the Den-Den Mushi would imitate it on the side if he let it. "Sir, we are currently hosting thrice the ship's contingent and were already on our way to restock, we can't remain here." He said, hoping to get him and his crew out of whatever was going to go down here.  
  
"Hm, the reinforcing fleet will arrive in a week maximum, I'm sure you can survive until then." Jonathan had no response, as he knew they could. "You are to stay at a position close enough to keep an eye on the creature, but no to be seen. Do not, I repeat, do not let the creature leave the island. No matter the cost."  
  
Was the sequence of orders before the living telephone was hang up on his face, the Mushi's eyes closing as it powered down.  
  
Rear-Admiral Jonathan looked into Lionel's face, nervous since the possibility of their enemy being a Carnation was mentioned, he looked into the tired and fearful eyes of the various marines above deck and he looked at the gigantic tree barely visible at the distant horizon.  
  
As he did so, he saw the roots that had been holding the fleet rise, bringing the overgrown captured ships into the air and dragging the entire fleet at almost Mach speeds to the island. And summarized the situation.  
  
"Crap."

* * *

**Holy hell this chapter dragged on. Over 12.000 words, and that was rushing it so I could "set sail" soon.  
  
The Carnation mentioned at the end, refers to Lily Carnation. A canon plant that was the antagonist of an One Piece movie, with various strange, unexplained powers. As the MC's clone could recover from haki or sea water as long as it was connected to the MC by plants (in this case the roots holding the ships together), they thought the MC was one of it, since any human, even logia users, would've been killed.  
  
Next chapter, a proper conversation with the freed slaves and setting sail, finally.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Yo. Posted an Enel-SI, if anyone is interested... It was a large part of why it took so long for this chapter. But the largest was because I started this story with only a way far ahead world war arc in mind, and thought up the whole "isolated Island" origin story in one day. Now I need to stumble the rest of the way. And because I discovered I suck at writing conversations.  
  
Dividing it in two parts because I dislike 15k chapters. And to post something already, part 2 is mostly written, but I'm stuck hard on one part, been so for weeks.  
  
Like always, no beta or any real proof-reading, please point out any grammar or sentencing mistakes, it really helps out.**

* * *

***The Island. 8 years before canon start.***  
  
I awoke to the same thing I did for the last 2 years, the shrill screeches of the piranha-like toucans I called neighbors, it has been like this since the flock had made its home on the fruit trees grove near my cubes.  
  
I turned to side to adjust myself to get back to sleep, before a sharp pain just above the left side of my waist completely woke me up.  
  
There was a sharper pain when I reflexively sat up, and when my left arm went to instinctively hold the place of the pain, a comparatively duller pain in my chest flared up.  
  
There was confusion for half a second, as after four years of fist fighting three-armed gorillas for fun, I was used to pain, but this was different, the pain was sharper than the familiar dull pain from taking a threerilla's human torso sized hand to the face. It lasted but a moment, before the memories of yesterday rushed in.  
  
"I met actual people." I said to myself in awe. Well, a lot more happened than just that. But it was what stood out the most for me.  
  
It was also one of the few parts I could properly remember. After being stabbed through the kidney, almost getting bisected at my chest and puking half my body's weight in blood, everything was a blur. It might have to with me injecting myself full of various painkillers during the quiet moment between fighting the Vice-Admirals and... saving the slaves? I think I saved them at least.  
  
But I clearly remember that I met people, beat some Vice-Admirals and that... I fought a fishman and threw ships at my own Island? Baccarat from the Golden movie killed a Celestial Dragon? There was another guy with a great mustache that I somewhat recognized that managed to flee with one of the ship? Something like that.  
  
Everything after the Vice-Admiral's was a blur from pain, blood-loss and the combat stims. That I was lying face down on the grass a few steps from my house, told me I had likely passed out.  
  
My thoughts stopped for a second when I recognized the familiar large, gray and red form of Bob sitting down besides me. Well, besides me as in almost 10 feet away, which can still be considered close for the anti-social primate.  
  
I looked at the gray, wrinkled and scarred face staring at me.  
  
"Hrn." The threerilla grunted at me, sounding chiding somehow.  
  
I blinked at the unexpected company, Bob tended to stay either alone or with the small harem of female threerillas he acquired while I wasn't looking. Normally I had to seek him out for spars.  
  
It took me a moment, both to understand why he was here and why he sounded chiding, before I realized the position of and feeling I got from the Voices of the various threerillas surrounding us in a very far spread circle.  
  
It was barely noticeable from how far apart the many threerillas packs united under Bob were, but they were all surrounding us. And their Voices were tense, somewhat scared and their bodies were pumping with adrenaline, ready to fight... these assholes wanted to kill me while I was down, and Bob was around as a deterrent to stop it.  
  
It wouldn't work, Bob or no Bob, my plants, that surrounded all of us, would kill any of the primates that tried, even if I was unconscious.  
  
I might not be able to control them or grow new plants while unconscious, but if they come with clear aggression, my existing plants are smart enough to react to it. And threerillas weren't exactly discreet.  
  
So I was at not at any real risk, but the point was that I had already proven that I was stronger than any of them before by beating up all of them, and then proceeded to provide them a haven of free food that might as well be heaven. And the fuckers still wanted to kill me while I was injured because of some primal "kill the alpha while he's weak and take his place" mentality.  
  
I knew the threerillas were ruthless and would attack at any sign of weakness, but it still rankled that they would turn on me so easily. Now that I didn't really needed them for company, I could kill them to extinction with a simple thought to my plants around the Island, at least I surely didn't need to keep providing the assholes free food.  
  
"Hrn." Bob's grunt took me from my increasingly murderous (and somewhat hypocritical) thoughts over the threerillas' own ruthless attitude. The gigantic ape (even for his species), grunting and nodding once.  
  
I could feel his hormones, heat fluctuations and minute changes of musculature through the varying sense from the many plants around my garden.  
  
Using it, I got some introspective into the ape, an introspective that told me that the old ape was kinda happy (relieved?). Probably for me. Also a bit disappointed, also probably for me, for getting beaten up in the first place.  
  
Still, it was really uplifting to see Bob would actually stick out for me.  
  
During my time on the Island, I found that violence was the threerilla's first, middle and last instinct, though I'm still pissed they would come for me while I was unconscious and weakened despite all I've done for them, I had expected it. And I somewhat expected Bob to do it to, I'm glad to be proven wrong there.  
  
"Ah, thanks Bob." I told the ape. Both for standing up for me and for distracting me from my anger right then.  
  
"Hrn." Truly, the best conversation partner.  
  
Sensing the various threerilla troops leaving the encirclement and spreading around again, probably noticing I was awake, I turned my attention back to my wounds.  
  
With a thought, the colony of pale white fungi that made up the thin, color-shifting sheet that I constantly wore as an armor opened itself, allowing me to see my actual skin beneath it, now with two jagged scar lines covering my torso.  
  
A long one, going from under my right armpit to almost the middle of my chest, and a smaller one, from just above my belly to a bit beneath my left rib, right through where my left kidney used to be. Both were closed by a gel-like substance, made up of a very compact algae-like growth.  
  
The larger scar was mostly painless, with only a a dull irritation on it. But the shorter scar, most specifically exactly where my left kidney should be, hurt like a bitch, as if a hot cattle prod was stuck inside of me.  
  
I focused on the surrounding vegetation for a second, basket v.2, which was still holding onto me after I passed out, grew, burrowed into my skin and connected me with the roots just beneath the grasslands.  
  
There was a sudden feeling of lightheadedness as a rush of vitamins, nutrients, analgesics, hemoglobins - _wait, can I do that?_ -, parenchymas - _wait, should that be there?-_ , ran through me from the vines connecting me to the Island's overall ecosystem.  
  
"Hah..." A relieved sigh left me as almost all the pain was washed away by the concoction running through my system.  
  
I had tested supplementing my regeneration by connecting to the Island before, after a particularly nasty bout with the threerillas or pathertails, but never anything to this degree, never needed it.  
  
On the root amongst the ships I fought yesterday, I had just closed the wounds, stopped the bleeding and filled myself with enough painkillers to take down an entire threerilla troop.  
  
That had gotten me through the rest of it, if nothing else, but it didn't actually heal anything. Now I could feel the wounds closing and the flesh around regenerating (first with points of incredible pain and burning, then a mostly soothing sensation).  
  
At the end of it, the gel from before was gone, with two pale white scar lines left behind, and my chest was pain free, but there was still a small pain where my left kidney used to be.  
  
Calmed and mostly pain free thanks to the boost, I turned back to the other important part of yesterday's events, besides my shredded kidney and sternum reaching armpit, there were people in my Island.  
  
The two large concentrations of unfamiliar smells, tastes, hormones and noises I could vaguely feel on the back of my head through my plants on the other side of the Island left me with no doubt that it wasn't just another hallucination.  
  
Well, almost with no doubt. A dangerous hallucination wouldn't be easy to see it through. Might have had one or two during my time on the Island, and that's not counting the self induced ones from testing my own hallucinogenics.  
  
I shook my head to clear any doubt away. There is only one way to be sure if it's an hallucination or not.  
  
Focusing on the trees close to one of the two human concentrations, I sensed the complete euphoria over it through the hormones, sounds, tastes, heat and smells coming from it. Euphoria tasted sweaty apparently.  
  
" _Wooooooohooooooooo!"_ An old man screamed as he ran naked in front of the tree most of my conscious was in it at the time. Surrounding him was an... orgy of what might be more than one thousand people in the middle of grasslands.  
  
My enhanced senses giving my far more of a feel/view/taste of it than I would've liked it.  
  
They had set up a haphazard camp on the shadow of the large algae blob that catched them yesterday, made with various materials that shouldn't be at the Island, probably scavanged from the shipwrecks I could see at the coast. Shipwrecks that confirmed my vague memory of throwing warships at my own island.  
  
The camp wouldn't survive the first real storm, but the giant canopy covering all of the Island was enough protection against the sun or rain most of the time.  
  
Not everyone was participating on the orgy itself, but pretty much everyone was commemorating their freedom in some manner. That many of them started an all out orgy in the middle of the freed-slaves' improvised camp didn't seem to bother the rest.  
  
Those who wanted more peace moved to the borders of the camp, closer to the forest. Most sitting in silence, from what I could read through their Voice and the plants (sadness, tiredness and emptiness), they were probably remembering their experiences, perhaps lost on both the memories of their past pains and the uncertainty of their newfound freedom.  
  
 _"HA~~!"_ Unfortunately, not everyone wanted the peace to contemplate the terrible experiences of slavehood in silence, some just wanted a more personal session. A loud moan removed me from my thoughts, a younger man pushing a blonde up the tree where most of my mind was currently in and... Okay.  
  
Leaving the tree, I moved it to where I could feel people not just radiating euphoria and lust. Instead it... _Hmmm, I think it's anger, fear and tiredness._  
  
Lust, euphoria, anger, fear, tiredness, all things I had felt from the threerillas at some point, but it was not the same, human... _feelings/hormones/Voices_ were different from any other. Well, every animal I met so far have some differences, but humans were far too different, both from any other species and amongst themselves.  
  
The torrent of negative feelings was coming from the second gathering of human Voices, at a large wooden box holding the... 600? Maybe 800, captured Marines and Celestial Guards. It's roof was left open, but the borders of the walls were covered in poisonous vines that would attack anyone that tried leaving.  
  
And if they left, where would they go? It's either swimming through the Calm Belt or going further into my Island. And they're not Rayleigh.  
  
The only one I know that could cause some trouble was... meditating? That, or Vice-Admiral Comil was passed out while sat up in the middle of the cube. Either way, he was more tightly restrained than the rest of the Marines, the vines I put on him after our fight still holding tightly to the higher ranked Marine.  
  
Considering their current lack of reaction, the others soldiers had probably tried to remove them earlier and learned that the prison cube (and all my other creations) could and would come alive to protect my vested interests. Despite me being passed out.  
  
I learned that when Bob tried to raid my cube home for fruits while I was passed out after I got bored and decided to fist fight every gorilla of Bob's collection of troops at the same time and without my armor some months back. (I had won, but, considering how I ended up after, couldn't say that I _won_ it.)  
  
After I passed out, I woke up to Bob half buried into my main cube's outside wall. Apparently, my walls still came alive and stopped the giant gorilla from tearing down my cubes looking for non-existent fruits.  
  
Why would I even keep fruits in my home when it's surrounded by fruit bearing trees? And why would he look there when he is surrounded by fruit bearing tree? Well, when I asked Bob, my answer was "Hrn" and he feeling annoyed.  
  
Either way, the point was that, since then, I have experimented and found that my plants do act by themselves, to protect any really vested interest of mine, despite any order. They can't grow or move as supernaturally as when I'm actively controlling them, but it's something.  
  
Their commanding officer incapacitated, the rest of the Marines, who were divided in various groups, seemed content to eat the fruits growing from the walls around them, complain about their situation and make 'escape plans' that they clearly weren't going to follow through.  
  
The two CP-something (probably 0, but I still hadn't confirmed) agents, and everyone using a Captain uniform, was also bounded, captured by my plants' attack on the Celestial Dragon's Fleet. But they hadn't made much of a impression during our last fight, pretty sure the Island's automatic response should be able to kill them.  
  
Definitely nothing interesting, and after yesterday's disaster, I just want proper conversation, without anyone trying to kill me and without it being an accusation, whinning or begging.  
  
Or whatever captured people do, I have no idea, never even seen people before, much less captured them. My anime only memories tell they would rant either about how "I'm going to get you for this!" or "my friends will come for me!". Neither option seems that interesting.  
  
Moving on from the caged Marines, I found four people, together, but far enough from both the giant orgy and the wooden prison.  
  
It was four of the five slaves I vaguely remembered meeting yesterday. The fishman and Baccarat were talking, white-haired was taking a page from Comil and meditating under a tree and the tinniest ex-slave was... laughing while swinging herself like Tarzan, turning her arm into jelly and stretching it to swing from tree to tree. Only the disproportionate masochist was missing.  
  
Focusing on the four, I ignored the kids and focused on to the speaking adults.  
  
" _I know your damn ability can do something about this!"_ I heard the fishman's Voice roar, following it to see through the nearest tree as the walking shark waved his still steel bound hands on the coast of the other side of the island.  
  
A fishman that... Well, my memories were hazy, but I'm pretty certain that asshole kicked my nonexistent kidney for no damn reason yesterday.  
  
" _Hm, did you say something?"_ Drawled out the smoking hot red-head. Currently with a Marine hat covering most of her face, while laying on a wooden stretcher covered with the same cushion grass I use on my bed.  
  
I could've focused on her being Baccarat, a canon character that my strange memories of what should've just been animated series. Or the fact that I'm pretty sure she murdered a Celestial Dragon yesterday. Or even just on her rack. Instead, I focused on the stretcher.  
  
I'm positive I did not make that... The fact that it was connected to the Island's network told me otherwise. It was minor enough that I could've just created early on and forgotten about it, but through my connection to it, I could tell it was created yesterday, during a time I should've been passed out cold.  
  
Did her Luck powers do this? If so, how? I knew that it could pull banana peels out of nowhere, make winds blow and have people do the slightest and somehow most effective of mistakes. But how could it make me unconsciously make her a cushioned stretcher? What the hell are its limits? _*_  
  
I was taken from my thoughts when the fishman did not take to being ignored that well. Considering yesterday, that seems like a recurrent problem of his.  
  
With a yell, blueman tried to bring his bounded hands down on the still sunbathing ginger. Before he could do so, the sand beneath him magically sunk, resulting in him losing his step, the masterful warrior somehow tripping over his own feet and falling face first to the ground.  
  
There was a moment of silence, Kisame not sure how to react and Baccarat not caring.  
  
I thought that would be it, but then, the moment the fishman moved to get up, lightning stroke a -relatively- tiny branch of the titanic tree that covered the entire Island, breaking it from the rock hard tree and sending it falling from the thousand meter tall tree straight at the still down sharkman.  
  
Noticing the by then terminal speed branch coming at him, Kisame left his face to the ground position to avoid the coming branch. Getting up to run at his opponent again, before slipping on the peel of one of the Islands' orange analogues that I swear wasn't there before, flipping backwards and falling back of the head first to the ground.  
  
The fishman had just enough time to open his eyes and see the mass of dark brown that was the threerilla sized branch -about the size of two to four people- crashing into his head.  
  
What the fuck was all of this? I looked to the sky... A sunny day with a few clouds through a mostly clear sky, nothing indicating lightning. Seriously, what the hell was that?  
  
 _"Lucky~"_ Came the answer from the red-head.  
  
Ignoring the sudden headache and worry over what the hell were the limits of her powers, I briefly looked around for the fifth member of yesterday's met slaves. My earlier look already told me wasn't at the orgy, so I gave a look at the people alone through the Island.  
  
Not really a good decision unless you have cheat Fruit powers, but most of the people were close to the beach orgy, either relieving themselves before going back in or not wanting to participate but not wanting to be too far alone in the unknown jungle.  
  
The top heavy S&M enthusiast was the exception, I found the man covered in light scratches and passed out in the middle of the Island with a dumb smile on his face. The cause of his unconsciousness was likely the deathtoad croaking in a rock nearby.  
  
The scratch wounds probably from an altercation with the small pack of mostly unconscious -1 dead- panthertails close by.  
  
...How did this guy survive so far?! I would've thought someone this clearly suicidal would've managed to fulfill his deathwish at One Piece's dangerous world by now.  
  
Rubbing my temples to try and reduce my headache, I had a root rise from under mister masochist, some small vines growing from it to burrow into him in, a process that should be very painful for any normal -non-plant/fungi/whatever the hell I am- person.  
  
" _Hmmmmm~~~"_ Of course, the freak loved it.  
  
Ignoring the disturbing even while unconscious man, the vines finished burrowing and started both absorbing the poison and administrating an anti-venom into the masochist.  
  
I still haven't managed to make a complete antidote to the deathtoads' poison, despite our long rivalry, but it was enough to make it that the man probably wouldn't die.  
  
There was a quiet as I thought on what to do with all of the new information.  
  
"Well, shit." I have absolutely no idea how the hell I was supposed to talk with any of them.  
  
My only memories of social interactions are from the weird flashes of a bunch of 2D series that I'm still not sure are not just hallucinations. And I have a feeling that taking the diplomatic route Luffy, Naruto or Natsu do in most of the memories, wouldn't work out unless I had godlike charisma and/or luck.  
  
No idea about my charisma, as I doubted "befriending" threerillas by beating them up counted, but considering that I was stranded and my first meeting was with a Celestial Dragon that tried to enslave me, resulting in me losing my kidney and probably being wanted by the Marines, I'm pretty sure my luck is crap.  
  
"So, what do you think, buddy?" I asked my oldest friend. Who was still sitting down some 20 feet from me, back resting at a tree behind him and eyes closed.  
  
"Hrn." Was his expressive reply. Didn't even turn or open his eyes.  
  
From the feelings, tastes, smells and others, more esoteric, sensations I could get through my plants, his thoughts on the matter were: he was kinda hungry. Truly uplifting.  
  
"Well, it's not like I can ask you about human interaction." I said to myself, turning to find my audience finishing scratching his ass with his third arm, then smelling and flinching away from his own hand.  
  
"Yeah, definitely not asking you about social interactions." I answered myself with a sigh.  
  
I stretched, ignoring the numbed pain on my kidney and barely felt irritation at my chest, and turned to the main issue with going out there and actually talking with somebody. Besides the overall anxiety over my first human contact, ever as far as I know.  
  
"So... Any idea for a name?" I the closest thing to a trusted second opinion I had.  
  
"Hrn."  
  
"Probably too simplistic."  
  
A name... something that I had kept putting off as far as I could. Never really needed one at the Island, so it wasn't hard. The plants don't ask questions, the threerillas and piranha-toucans don't care, and I didn't care about the panthertails or deathtoads.  
  
I had tried taming a panthertail once. Long story short, Peter the panther was an ass and is now plant food.  
  
Unfortunately, I had to decide on that now.  
  
I hoped I would have until my project was done and I left the Island. Either deciding a name for myself in a symbolic beginning of my journey through the wider world or, and especially hopeful there, either remembering something or meeting someone that knew me.  
  
Considering I seem to be at its world, that "One Piece" thing might not be just a show and actually be part of my past life... the fact it was 2D and told through multiple differing angles and perspectives didn't help that theory. Even so, I still held some small hope to meet someone that knew me, hope is the last thing to go.  
  
But, instead of discovering who I am or having a poetic naming at the start of my journey, I gotta figure a name out quick so I can deal with mister let's kick our savior's kidneys and the Great Orgy. Not as personal or dramatic as I hoped.  
  
Rubbing my temples for what felt like the fifth time today (did I ever really stop rubbing them?), I went through what the first names that came to mind.  
  
Considering my only naming references were from the strange 2D flashes I had, it was the names of the characters I took the most inspiration from: Senju Hashirama, Sequen Warrod and Yoko Kurama.  
  
Senju Hashirama, Sequen Warrod, Yoko Kurama. Senju Hashirama, Sequen Warrod, Yoko Kurama...Argh! I both didn't really like any of them and it felt wrong just taking someone else's name.  
  
"Screw this. Senju was a clan's name and Thousand Hands sounds badass enough, gonna go with it." I declared out loud, mostly to see if I can convince myself of it. It didn't really work.  
  
This world had enough people with only a single name that no one should care, and I could always chose an either first or last name to add in later on if I wanted.  
  
Bob didn't show any reaction to my declaration, as usual.  
  
"So, what you think about Senju, pal?" I asked the ape besides me, who just grunted again in response. "Great conversation as always, mate." I said, before getting up with my own grunt, holding my where my kidney used to be.  
  
I stood to my full height and took a deep breath, ignoring the numbed pain in my chest from it, getting ready for some proper human interaction. Got my name, now to get this dealt with.  
  
Really hadn't expect to have to deal with people until my project was done with and I had managed to leave this place, but one needs to roll with the hand that's given... well, not so much given as that I ran in the middle of the ocean to get it. But, in my defense, I was lonely. Or bored, it was getting hard to differentiate.  
  
Well, either way, they were here now, so I would just have to deal with it.  
  
"See you soon, Bob." I said and, with a wave to the still seated ape, I took a step forward and sunk into the ground beneath me, the root network barely covered by a thin sheet earth swallowing me whole.  
  
Though I couldn't swim on the actual sea, I could on the sea of roots, moss and fungi below the Island, the flora and fungi molding in front of me as if water and behind me to help speed me along.  
  
In a few seconds, I crossed to the other side of the isle, arriving at the coast where the four were, close to but far enough to not see, hear or smell the Great Orgy. I arrived under a large tree at the coast, remaining beneath the sea of roots while looking around.  
  
White-haired remained meditating? Either that or taking a seated nap, his Voice and breathing were oddly quiet. The blond brat was now making jelly constructs that moved around her, on the very vague shape of what I think was supposed to be ducks.  
  
Baccarat remained on the same position on the stretcher close to coast (but far enough for the fishman not to have access to the sea or for her, a Devil Fruit eater, to be at any risk).  
  
And the fishman -bless his hard head- just ripped through the rock hard branch by chewing through it. Closing his jaws and breaking a last piece of rock hard wood just as I arrived, before grabbing hold of the moving sword/club thing that so far remained quiet and immobile behind him.  
  
I decided to watch a bit more to see if I get any more information on Baccarat's powers.  
  
The fishman defied my expectations though, and didn't just attack first.  
  
"I can jump in the air and kill people with only my left feet, and you just made me trip first on nothing and then on a peel, I know you can do something about these damn cuffs." The fishman said through gritted teeth. I was able to feel the anger both on his voice and on his Voice.  
  
Finally, the red-haired actually moved. She sighed and gave up on taking a nap, removing the plundered Marine hat from her eyes to look at the fishman from her position on the stretcher, squinting from the sudden light.  
  
"Woah~ you sure have a hard head." She said, carelessly about the fishman's impatience. "But, as I already said the last eighty times you asked me. For it to work, it either has to benefit me or I have to _reaaaally_ want it." She drawled out while squint-glaring at the blue blur on her vision.  
  
That she didn't care much about the fishman's comfort or personal problems with being shackled, was pretty clear in her voice and Voice. That the fishman didn't much care about her attitude, was also made clear in the roar of anger I sensed from him. Hearing it being vocalized as an actual roar a second later.  
  
Blueman jumped at Baccarat, the woman just sighed and slowly got up. Instead of dodging or in any way protecting herself, she started calmly jogging away.  
  
The fishman was frozen mid-jump by a sudden strong gust of wind that took away some of his momentum and got a lot of sand on his eyes. Sand that shouldn't be this affected by wind in the first place, being mostly covered in grass as it was.  
  
Still, the stubborn half-shark fell on a roll from his broken momentum and blindness, before getting on his feet, kicking the ground and bursting forward at red-hair, despite his lack of sight.  
  
I expected another sudden universe shift to stop him again. Instead, I heard a quiet " _oh, shit"_ , before the red-haired sped her jog into proper running, the fishman still quickly covering the distance, and I could feel nervousness start to grow in her.  
  
 _So one can power through her luck._  
  
Not easily though, when the fishman reached her, swinging the blue spiky club I remembered from yesterday -but with its spikes tucked to not kill- the red-haired tripped forward, the sword passing above her, barely missing her back and hitting one of the many beach trees.  
  
The club-sword-animal thing breaking through most of the tree, making it fall straight at the fishman -at an angle I knw it shouldn't fall at- who jumped back, giving the red-haired some space.  
  
The woman kept running away, the until now calm look on her face gone for one of anxiety, bordering on fear, running towards the shoddy encampment nearby. If what I remembered from her powers from the movie, probably to steal some luck.  
  
 _Guess now it's as good as time as any to intervene. Before either she gets some more luck or the fishman gets to her._  
  
With a thought, the always present roots rose beneath the fishman and the woman and attacked both of them, the grasslands they had been standing on suddenly turning into a sea of grabbing tentacles.  
  
I waited patiently beneath the ground as the woman's good fortune still lasted her a good five grabbing attempts, tripping and stumbling on completely luck based feats of acrobacy.  
  
But eventually it ran out, her ankle being grabbed by one of the many roots, held in place and out of luck, she was quickly held in a cocoon of vines.  
  
The fishman... was bit more difficult. The man was gouging through hordes of vines while jumping between the larger vines and the air it self, like a demented blue monkey.  
  
Seeing that just trying to grab him wasn't working, I had vines around the more annoying of the targets go through a small mutation. Connected to the Island and, through it, to me, I willed them to produce one of the various neuromuscular blocking agents I developed throughout my years here, an air born, invisible and odorless, paralyzing poison.  
  
Which I, of course, made for use on the Marines and various monsters of the One Piece world. Definitely not to train myself against deathtoad venom's paralyzing effects in a childish grudge with cold-blooded amphibians that did not even understand my one-sided rivalry.  
  
Well, it was for both... but mostly because of the deathtoads.  
  
There were a few more flips, some groggy wide swings of the strange sword, and then the fishman went down. Falling face first to the ground, awake but immobile.  
  
It took effect quicker than I expected, I had used an even stronger gas against Comil yesterday, and the Vice-Admiral still managed to fight for a good while afterwards. Either the fishman had a weak poison resistance or Comil had a strong one.  
  
The kids just looked curiously at the situation. Well, the blond looked scared and the white-haired looked mostly tired, but both looked at least a bit curious.  
  
I took a deep breath.  
  
 _'Okay, let's go, my first conversatio, where they -hopefully- don't try to murder me.'_  
  
Having pumped myself up for my first real experience of human interaction, and quietly deciding against gassing them all with dopamine inducing airborne toxins to facilitate friendship -for now-, I melted out of the ground besides the still seated white-haired kid.  
  
Ignoring the kid that I could _see_ staring at the back of my head through my plants, I moved to stand over the paralyzed form of the the fishman, smiling at the blue face glaring at me at its position half buried in the grass/sand grounds.  
  
I looked at the red-haired, of who only the head was visible out of the vine cocoon holding her in place, currently blinking at me. The blond-haired brat was staring at me in fear, body already mostly turned to jelly. And the white-hared brat, that was...  
  
"You have saved me and proven your strength. My body is your blade, your will is my own." The white-hared kid said while kneeling with his head down besides me.  
  
"Eh..." I stumbled on my own words upon the unexpected life-vow. "Sure, you do you kid." I settled on, bending down to pat the still downward pointed head of the brat, who remained in his kneeling position, face downwards.  
  
Well, that just took the winds out of my sails.  
  
I had a whole gloating speech for mister 'let's kick our savior's injured kidney', maybe an overzealous demonstration of power to scare them into compliance. Or just offering them narcotics. Ah, screw it then.  
  
Falling downward, my coat shaped itself into a chair behind me, letting me sit down in front of the downed swordsman.  
  
With me still being slightly taller than Baccarat, even while sitting. Considering my memories from One Piece placed her as regularly sized, even kind of tall, that probably meant I was freakishly tall. Like Doflamingo or Kuma.  
  
I wasn't very focused on that after the whole almost being bisected thing, but it was weird that I was taller than Comil and Onigumo, who were freakishly tall themselves, hadn't thought much on it, I was more focused on fighting them at the time.  
  
"So..." I started, the four focusing on me "How do y'all like my plants?" I asked, vaguely remembering that I mentioned showing them off.  
  
Awkward silence and deadpan stares were my only answer.  
 ****

* * *

**Sorry for the wait. Had this written for weeks actually, but wanted to finish the part 2, to release it one after the other... gave up on that after weeks stuck on a scene, releasing this now and seeing what I can force away there later. Will try to release the part 2 soon, with setting sail and a proper damn conversation (why is it so difficult to write? Fighting is much so easier...).  
  
On how he remembers the Naruto anime but doesn't recognize Kimimaro or Kisame... don't think about it. I don't know, I'm thinking about changing their names, they would still be nativized copies though, but called... I don't know, Sharky and The Bone, or any other equally stupid name, I suck at naming.  
  
Also, in case someone thought about it during the threerilla part, the reason the threerillas never tried to attack the MC during the times he was down after his deathtoad competitions, it's because every creature in the Island has the instinct to avoid anything deathtoad related, and could smell the poison on the MC.**


	11. Chapter 11

**If you want an image of the MC, picture Hashirama Senju, but with green eyes, bits of vegetation speckled in his hair and with a full, unkempt beard reaching to just below his chest. Basically homeless, green eyed Hashirama. Oh, and about 14/18 feet (for comparison, Doflamingo is 10ft and Kuma is 22ft).**

 **He will eventually clean up and get his act together. But he is an amnesiac, whose only memories are of strange 2D series, raised among gorillas and plants. He will be socially inept through the next few chapters, can't think of a realistic way a person like that wouldn't be.**

 **And, as I discovered writing this, I suck at writing conversations/interactions. Especially between unsocial treemen and weary, recently freed slaves. So... get ready for a lot of that first meeting awkwardness.**

 **Also, is the "y'all" too annoying? I'm not a native english speaker and always liked it for some reason. Y'all tell me if it gets too annoying.**

 **As always, no beta or any indepth proof-reading, so please point out any grammar or sentencing mistakes, it really helps out.**

 **"** Heard **" and "** Voice **", with capital letters, are about Observation haki. "** Tree **" and "** Island ** **" with capital letters are about the giant tree in the middle of the island and the island itself.  
****

* * *

***Unknown Island, Calm Belt. 8 years before canon starts.***

If it wasn't for the fact they didn't exist in the Island, I was pretty sure crickets would've started chirping now, as everyone stared unsure at me, while I waited for them to answer. I resisted the urge to create a tumbleweed to flyby between us.

…

I had kind of expected the answer to be that they didn't like my plants, considering that half of my audience was either bound or paralyzed by said plants. But still, at least that would be some kind of answer, this silence is just unnerving.

White-hair was still kneeling besides me with his face pointed to the ground, Voice as quiet as one could be -' _do I have to tell him to get up?'-_ , Baccarat was bound in a cocoon of vines, staring at me with an impassive face, but a Voice screaming in panic, the tiny jelly girl was staring at me confused and scared -' _I think, it's hard to tell when most of her face was made of jelly'_ -, and the bluemen's group lost member rolled his dead, shark like eyes up to glare at me from his face to the ground position, Voice roaring in anger.

…

As the silence stretched and none of the people more experienced with social interaction took any action, I decided that I had to make the first move. Apparently, when you show up out of nowhere and immobilize half of the audience, they expect you to actually do or say something, besides asking about plants.

 _'Let's solve the immobilized issue first then._ _After all, it's not like they are a real threat for me, definitely not within my Island.'_ I had captured them mostly so the fish wouldn't attack me instinctively and Baccarat wouldn't manage to steal any luck while I wasn't paying attention.

With a thought, the vine cocoon released Baccarat, the red-head stumbling on her sudden freedom, and looking both wearily and curiously at me.

Ignoring the confused luck-woman, I leaned forward on my coat/chair to stare at the paralyzed fish, who was unable to move his head, but rolled his eyes to be barely able to glare at me from below.

"So, if I release ya, ya gonna do something stupid again?" I asked the only rescued slave that had proved he was stupid enough to think that attacking his savior was a good idea.

He was unable to actually answer, the paralyzing toxin stopping his tongue and jaws muscles, but his hardened glare and the roar of his Voice was enough of an answer. He would definitely do something stupid.

...Well, it's not like whatever he did would put me in any real danger while on my Island, and I had already beaten the man when I was half bled to death and keeping an eye at a clone, so I'm sure I'll be able to work something out.

So, with a thought, the grass around the fallen fishman started producing a counter to the paralyzing toxin. The antidote was barely seeable as a thin cloud of spores floating around the swordsman.

I leaned even more forward on my chair, reaching towards the struggling fishman, who was twitching as he slowly regained feeling on his muscles, and started twitching harder when I approached.

While he was still paralyzed, I reached down and held his steel manacles, roots growing from my palm into the manacles' mechanisms, forcing them open.

I removed my hand just before the fishman was able to push himself up and backwards, stumbling as he tried to gain distance with his still groggy, half-immobilized musculature.

He almost fell on his back, but was able to stabilize himself, standing straight in front of me, looking at his freed hands in _suspicion/awe/doubt?..._ human Voices (half fish or otherwise) were still hard to understand.

As seemingly no one wanted to give me their opinions on my plants, not helping keep the small talk going, I moved on to the next part of my "nakama"-making plan.

A plan which I had made in the five or so minutes between me waking up injured and getting here. I probably should've thought more about this, maybe sent a clone instead of coming to meet the unknowns personally... bah! too late to regret now, I wanted a proper damn social interaction, I'm getting a proper damn social interaction.

According to my experience with the threerillas, you both become friends and get respect by beating the other one's faces in.

According to my anime memories, you became _nakamas_ by doing pretty much the same thing, then having a party together. Possibly saving each other -or getting to know their past, save their homes or something like it- in a personal arc later on.

I had already beaten at least one of them, which also was the one that appeared to be the strongest fighter of the group. And I had skipped the order, having met them by saving them in our first meeting, all that's left to do is the partying together part.

 _'Yes,'_ I thought, nodding to myself. _'That makes perfect sense.'_

Unfortunately, I had no idea how to start a human party. I couldn't remember any actual interaction and the anime memories didn't help a lot, most parties just seemed to start after they defeated whatever the villain of the arc was.

A type party did start after the Celestial Dragon's fleet defeat and was still going, but I wanted a bit of regular human interaction before I went to join it for another type of human interaction. Might as well get all of it off my list in one day.

In my experience, you started a threerilla party by throwing booze-fruits at them and punching the one closest to you in the face. What I remembered of Fairy Tail corroborated that the idea was solid for humans.

Decided on what to do, I was stopped from throwing fruits and fists at everyone by the fishman's social ineptitude being worse than my own -or faster, at least-, as suddenly the mouth/tip of the fishman's sword thing was pointed at my face. A large mouth full of sharp teeth grinned at me as he held the strange, but clearly dangerous creature at my face.

The freed slave that I had released from servitude just yesterday and -after attacking me for no reason- I still freed the hands of just 3 seconds ago, was now pointing a... something that I'm pretty sure is supposed to be a weapon at my face.

That I wasn't really annoyed at the prospect of fighting after just waking up injured, and instead had to push off a wide smile off my face to not seem too off putting, didn't say much good about my sanity.

It's on point with Natsu from my memories, but from the reactions of those around him, he wasn't the best example of social aptitude.

Still, I was trying to have a conversation, not a fight. For now. I took a deep breath and a rush of light relaxant ran through me, stopping me from taking on the fish's challenge.

"You know, considering that I saved ya yesterday and released ya just now, you have a very strange way of saying thanks." I said, still with a smile, trying to keep things calm.

Annoyingly, he just smirked, unrepentant. "Ah, thanks for that." He said, the smirk telling me that it wasn't going to be the start of an apology and perhaps a friendship. "But I also happen to have a very healthy suspicion on strange plant-men saving me in the middle of the ocean." He finished, sword still poised. "Once was enough for me to learn." He mumbled more quietly to himself.

...Ignoring my curiosity over what was his previous experience with being saved by plant-men and pushing down my wish and ingrained instinct of just solving this with fists, I looked him in the eyes, being on level with me despite me being sitting down and-

Before I could say anything else to try and calm things down, he pushed the sword-thing forward, covering most of my vision and pretty much throwing a biological attack from how bad the thing's breath was.

 _'Okay, fuck this.'_ I had tried talking, I wanted to wait a bit before fighting again, maybe heal properly, but I was on enough analgesics and stimulants that I couldn't feel my missing kidney and armpit to sternum scar.

If he wants to give me an ultimatum just after I rescued him twice, I don't mind getting some exercise before getting some social interaction.

Quickly growing a layer of hard wood around my hands and covering it in Armament, I locked both hands around the tip of the sword's tip, forcing its jaws shut when it tried opening its mouth further, probably to bite me in response to the growing of my wood gauntlets.

I kept a firm hold of the creature, holding down the spikes that tried to shred through the protective wood and haki covering my hands, and then pushed it aside when the fishman tried pulling it back towards himself, rushing towards the unbalanced sword/clubsman.

Despite the large sword in his hands, the difference in size between us meant that we had about the same reach. Meaning I only needed half a second for him to be in arms' reach. It was a strange experience for someone used to fighting creatures at least twice his size.

I reached for the fishman's head, intending to suffocate him with vegetation, but the moment I released the sword creature, its spikes extended, though too far to harm me, they sunk into the ground, stabilizing the fishman, who rooted his feet on the ground and quickly turned to bring his sword around, this time with its spikes extended and covered black in haki.

It was a race of mili-seconds on who would reach the other first, one that I believed I was about to win, before a hand lightly touched my upper arm. Without needing to turn to look, I _knew_ it belonged to Baccarat, who, despite me being pretty much all-seeing in the Island, reached me without me noticing.

All-seeing is not all-present, I can only pay attention to so much, and she approached so casually that it didn't catch my attention, focused on the fishman as I was... and on the over a thousand people orgy, can't lie, that is kinda of hard to ignore.

 _'Shit.'_

I barely registered that she had also touched the fishman at the same time as me, and, being too occupied with trying to bring his porcupine on a stick upon me, said fishmen also had his luck stolen.

 _'But the touch was through my fungal armor, maybe it needs direct conta-'_

My train of thought was interrupted when I sensed an incoming Tree sized tail at the coast we were standing on.

I jumped back, avoiding the spiked blade instead of attacking its owner. But me moving had allowed me to avoid the titanic tail that shifted half of the coast-line with its movement, digging into the Island for the simple reason of its monstrous owner turning around beneath the sea. Hitting the fishman as it passed by, who was sent flying away from the red-head as a result.

Yet somehow, _coincidentally,_ the tail bent to avoid Baccarat, who had been at an arms' reach of me, then its owner finished turning around and swam away beneath the ocean. The new triangle shaped cliff on the receded coast-line being the only proof of its existence.

A tail that had done all of that after its owner _somehow_ bypassed three earlier warning systems and two defense systems that should've killed the Sea-King and caught the corpse for the Island's consumption. With me only noticing when it got close enough to the Island for my Observation.

Considering my own, I don't have much ground to stand on to say this, but. _'Her powers are bullshit...'_

When I landed, I almost slipped on a peel that wasn't there a second earlier, the vines from my coat rooting me to the ground and keeping me from falling, then I turned back to the red and blue pair.

The fish didn't have the luxury of rooting himself into the ground, but, when he landed from his Sea-King tail induced fight, he still managed to avoid the bad-luck induced tripping by rolling, jumping and stumbling until he landed on his feet, far away from me and the coast.

Considering he was a fishman and I was a long-range fighter, being far from both me and the sea was the worst possible position for him to be in. I mean, I wanted to punch his face in and I am gonna get closer to do it, but he had no way of knowing that and, tactically, distance would've only helped me.

"Well, how about we all calm down a little?" Baccarat said from her position on the new, tail created, cliff. The half-smile on her face not showing anxiety and fear I could sense beneath her calm exterior.

I took a deep breath to try and calm down, forcing down the too wide of a smile to be sane that had covered my face at the prospect of a fight.

As much as I wanted to see if I could overcome her luck power, with the fishman being a good bonus, it wasn't the time for it.

I'm sure there will be plenty of fights later on, for now I wanted to try some talking. I've done plenty of fighting, but no proper talking so far... talking with clones that were being puppeteered by myself did not count and was not a healthy habit.

Calming down and pushing away the wish of rushing at them for a blood pumping fight, I felt the white-haired kid move before I was able to say anything.

I could see behind me through the plants as the kid suddenly grew two thin, pale blades from his hands, throwing the short swords at Baccarat, continuing running towards her the moment the blades left his hands.

The red-haired stumbled on the sand just in time to fall out of the path of the blades, the kid wasn't deterred though, not losing pace, he pointed all his fingers at the startled red-head and five... bullets? grew from his fingertips and shot towards the red-haired faster than a regular pistol.

The still lucky filled red-haired was able to dodge it, jumping to a random direction, _coincidentally_ out of the bullets' path.

After stumbling out of death's way, she turned around to meet her assailant and getting to be face to face with him, as by then the white-haired kid was already airborne, having jumped to cover the last of the distance and properly reach the neck of the taller woman, two new blades already formed from his under his wrists, arms crossed and ready to uncross to decapitate her.

Before a mass of vines moving as if one large tentacle grabbed him mid-air just as he moved to remove the red-head's head, pulling him back towards me.

Just in time too, because from the fear Baccarat was radiating and the thin cut on her neck, she didn't have enough luck to stop it by herself. _'Or does me interrupting the attack count as her luck saving her? Damn confusing power.'_

It probably wasn't the best idea to pull the clearly close range fighter brat towards me. But I didn't really fear any of them within my Island and was too annoyed with how troublesome this whole human conversation shtick was getting to really care about the risk it caused.

Either way, it was no trouble, the kid didn't resist, just going limp in the vines that receded back to my arm. Ending with me holding the brat by the cuff of his shirt on my left hand, dead emerald green eyes staring up at me.

….

I had no idea how I was supposed to deal with any of this. _'Who can I punch to solve this?'_ Thankfully, Baccarat got out of her stupor from her most recent near death situation and knew just what to say to calm the situation.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?" She roared while stomping over to me and the brat. "YOU KEPT FOLLOWING ME FOR TWO DAYS, AND NOW YOU'RE JU-"

A new mass of vines stopped her, holding her in place and covering her mouth. Her being too out of luck to do anything about it.

All that screaming was giving me a headache. No, this entire situation was. I rubbed my forehead to try and force it away, it didn't work.

Ignoring the bound and gagged but still screaming red-head, I turned back to the suspended brat, holding him up at eye level, his feet barely reaching my chest.

"So, the hell was that?" I said tiredly, no longer able to keep cheer and friendliness in my voice.

"She and Kisame attacked you. She was the weaker of the two, it made sense to take her out first." Was the emotionless reply I got, Baccarat screamed something into the gag, probably profanities.

I rubbed my forehead again, but the headache was still there and growing.

"Y'all are clearly unstable." I said with a heavy sigh. Heaving another, heavier sigh as I felt a movement to my right, I released the kid from a drop that was at least four times his size. He fell on his feet with no sign of exertion.

I pointed my right arm outwards and a mass of branches and leaves exploded from it just in time to catch the rushing torrent of liquid that was jelly-girl as she tried coming to her... -whatever Baccarat was to her- rescue.

Considering that she just ran straight at me while turning into a torrent of jelly slightly larger than a panthertail ***** , the woven branches and leaves were easily able to encircle and imprison the rushing mass of liquid.

The sphere of leaves and branches then disconnected from my arm. And I was left with the bound Baccarat screaming unheard profanities to my left and the muffled screaming of the trapped kid to my right.

Who, by the fear I could sense screaming in her voice and Voice, is either claustrophobic or afraid of the dark.

And the white-haired kid in front of me. Still staring emotionlessly at me, both his face and Voice giving me no clue on his state of mind. _'What the hell does he want?'_

Either Observation or my plant senses -it was always hard to tell them apart, and it was becoming increasingly harder- told me of the fishman who jumped the moment he saw the blond captured, then kicked the air behind to rocket himself at me, sword-thing covered in haki.

Normally, I would've been happy to accept the challenge, ecstatic even, almost nothing in the Island even tries to fight me anymore -except the damn deathtoads- and he would even be a kind of new challenge (hey, I had only fought him once, anything else in the forest I had battled at least over 10 times).

I never believed I would choose not to fight when offered the chance, but there were all these other new options I wanted to try out now.

While I had done plenty of fighting, now I could talk with actual people -not unresponsive gorillas or puppeteered plant clone- and also do... all kinds of other stuff with people at the orgy.

And I'm sure I can beat them up later if I want it too, I just don't have that kind of time now, this was just a quick stop to see the new people on my Island -and confirm they weren't hallucinations, again- before I got to work.

After that whole Celestial Dragon thing, I'll need to hurry up my "get mobile" project, which will mean actually putting in the effort to get out of here before whatever response the Marines send arrives.

So, no time for play fighting.

With the slight pressing of my toe in the ground, it opened up as if a giant maw beneath the flying fishman, one filled with tentacle-like branches and vines, the vegetation snaking its way up to him while producing the toxin that had taken him out just minutes ago, releasing it in the air as it approached.

He was more prepared this time, and used his freed hands for some proper fishman karate, its air pushing techniques keeping most of the airborne toxins away from him.

Still, they covered the entire air space around him, and little by little he inhaled it. After a few moments struggling useless against the endless sea of vines, the paralyzing agent ran its course and he was completely immobile, face first to the ground, as far away from me as when he started his attack.

Everyone around me either restrained or not-resisting, I was free to think calmly about the situation. _'Fuck.'_

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. This wasn't going well, that was obvious. ' _Well, thankfully, everyone was now pacified.'_ It's always good to think about the positives.

Now I just had to deal with the new problems of the muffled red-haired's death threats, the panicked kid trapped in a branch ball and the paralyzed fishman currently incapable of even glaring at me, face first into the ground as he was, but that I'm sure would've if he could. Still, everyone is pacified for now, and I'm sure I can force a conversation out of them. Probably. Ditching them and going to the den of sin a couple kilometers to the side was seeming an increasingly good idea.

Deciding to give social instead of sexual interaction one more try, I created a large, round, wooden table on the coast. Surrounded by four, large, puff-like, vine-made chairs.

The world's most comfortable seating apparatus, the back moldable, living vine chair! Approved by 11 out of 12 orthopedists for literally all back problems as it shapes itself specifically to your issues and needs. The only one in the market with a millennia long life expectancy -as long as it has light and water- and that eventually grows a second one by itself. Vine-chairs™, get yours today. Call now, 123-what even is this paragraph.

The vines holding Baccarat dragged their screaming victim to the round table. Some also grew from the ground close by the immobile fishma, grabbing him and taking him to the table.

His sword-thing tried to protect its master, walking/crawling on its spikes and forming a protective barrier of haki-covered spikes around the downed swordsman. But without its wielder the thing didn't have much mobility, and was quickly grabbed by the attacking plants, its spikes restrained by the surrounding vines and dragging it to be beside the fishman on the table.

A thought unmade the sphere holding the still screaming blond, who froze upon she realized she was free. The jelly-kid staring quietly and wide-eyed at me, paralyzed from fear. Luckily, one glare was enough for her to _eeeep_ and unfreeze _,_ and pointing at it was enough for her to... slide to her place at the table. A vaguely human shaped jelly blob quivering on the chair.

"You, there." I said while pointing at a chair with my head to the kid I had been consciously ignoring so far. White-hair didn't hesitate, being at the pointed seat almost the instant I finished speaking.

Arriving at an empty spot on the table, my coat shaped itself into a chair for me to sit down, white-haired at one side and the fishman at the other, the blond jelly besides the white-haired and Baccarat besides the fishman.

The vines mostly released Baccarat and the fishman, only one remaining around their waist, one that Baccarat was too physically weak to destroy and that the fishman was too paralyzed to do anything about it. Said vine pulling them into their seats.

 _'Wow, this is going great…'_ I thought sarcastically to myself.

Baccarat and the fishman were glaring at me, the latter through rolled eyes, as his paralyzed head was currently facing the table. Jelly-girl looked one loud word away from passing out from fear. And Bones-boy looked like he couldn't care less.

Unwilling to give up on getting my first damn conversation so soon, I tried copying the first introduction memory that came to mind.

"Let's try this again, with a more civil introduction." I began. "As I decided about ten minutes ago, my name is Senju. I like fighting and experimenting with my plants. I dislike the sea, people who kick others in their injured kidneys for no reason and the damn deathtoads. My... well, more of a goal than a dream, is to travel the world, ya know, see what's out there and decide on a proper dream later on."

I finished to a silent table, everyone looking at me confused. Even the white-haired kid, it was still better than the completely emotionless presence he gave of before.

After a moment of quiet awkwardness, white-hair apparently got the idea.

"I'm Kimimaro Kaguya, I like..." then he trailed off, looking at nothing, his Voice and face showing what I think was confusion, before he shook his head, the doubt on his face and Voice clearing away. "I have no particular likes or dislikes, I wish to serve well." he finished in his dead tone.

 _Eh..._ Wonderful, the ice wasn't at all broken by the introduction, instead, the silence was even more awkward thanks to it.

After almost a full minute of awkward silence, with me already considering giving up on this and seeing about some other type of human interaction at orgy that was still playing out on the back of my mind -' _seriously, they're relentless'-_ the non-murderous brat broke the silence. From how she had been squirming during the silence, probably bothered by the tenseness of the silence.

"My name is Honey!" she screamed, way louder than strictly necessarily. "I'm 9 years old!" _'If I was supposed to say my age, I have no idea.'_ "I like the sun and my..."* _'aaaaand now she's crying.'_ The girl started to sob quietly, pulling her half-jelly knees to herself and sinking quietly into the vine puff of a chair.

 _'Seriously, I am the only capable of a normal introduction?'_ There were two quiet sobs into the silence before Baccarat tried to push this along.

"My name is Baccarat, I like not dying or being a slave, I dislike assholes." She said, holding her shallowly cut neck and glaring at Kimimaro, who didn't even turn in her direction as she spoke. "And my dream is to get out of whatever this is alive, hopefully whole." She finished glaring at me now, no idea why.

Okay, a bit overly aggressive, but the best introduction besides mine so far. In my rather uninformed and biased opinion.

We all turned to the last member of the table, well, we, as in me and Baccarat. Kimimaro just stared passively at nothing and Honey was still quietly sobbing in her chair.

The fishman glared at me from his face-planting position.

 _Oh yeah, right, that._ With a thought, the table started releasing spores to counter-act the paralyzing agent on him, though I made sure to not make it in as large a dose as before, so as to not actually give him all his mobility back.

With some of the toxin still running through him, his movements were slower and weaker, and he hopefully wouldn't try to start anything again. He already proved he was stupid enough to do it.

We waited in silence as the bluest man on the island started twitching, before groggily sitting up, supporting himself on the table, before falling backwards into his chair and took a deep breath, before turning his head to glare at us, now sitting up instead of face-planted.

"Kisame." was his short reply, clenching and unclenching his hands and face muscles to try and get back proper feeling into them.

There was a moment of silence as I waited for more... Okay, seemingly that was it. Short and unnecessarily stand-offish, but at least he wasn't attacking anyone this time. Already better than I had expected from him.

"Okay!" I said loudly, catching the attention of the unfeeling brat staring at the horizon and of the now more softly crying one. Kisame and Baccarat already being focused on staring wearily at me.

"We all know each other's names now, no longer just random strangers that casually met at a slave breakout in the middly a monster infested sea. Y'all know my name and, considering I've only helped so far, should have no reason to fear me..." I said encouragingly, both to them and myself.

Upon no one answering, just staring at me and each other warily -besides Kimimaro-, I continued.

"So..." I said while thin vines started growing besides everyone. Baccarat jumped from her seat, and the fishman tried it too, but his arms were too groggy to hold him up, so he just ended up staring at vine while half fallen in his chair. Honey was too afraid to even move and Kimimaro, unsurprisingly, didn't seem to care. The vines then started producing some melon sized fruits at its tips.

"Fruits?" I asked as the vines pushed the fruits into their faces. Ignoring Baccarat running around the table to avoid the chasing vine that was just trying to offer her some food and the glaring fishman that only wasn't doing the same thing for a lack of muscle control.

Tired of Baccarat's both unnecessary and useless panic, the vine still wrapped around her waist pulled her back to her seat, the other vine releasing its fruit on her lap as soon as she was forcibly seated.

By then, Kimimaro had already grabbed his own fruit, Honey held the one that was dropped on her lap, frozen while holding the fruit in front of her, and the fishman-

My thoughts were interrupted, by his fruit being thrown back at me. A vine separating itself from my coat/chair and grabbing it mid-air, then bringing it back to my open palm.

 _'Holy crap, what's his problem now?!'_ Thankfully I didn't even need to ask.

"We've all seen what the purple fruits did to the others, why don't you take a bite first?" He said, half fallen on the chair thanks to his still half paralyzed muscles. Shouldn't have even managed to throw the fruit too, but I guess imbecility finds a way.

A brief look at it told me the fruit was a purple, pear looking, melon sized thing. I had just created them to be full of vitamins and to help along the production of serotonin, it was to make you healthy and happy, I hadn't put much thought into appearance. ' _Not the best choice, purple is the universal color for poison'._ Not that it was poisoned, they were surrounded by my plants, I didn't need them to eat anything to poison them.

Still, weird looking or no. "Why would I even do anything to the fruits? It's pretty obvious I could kill all of ya without it?"

It was apparently not the best thing or way to say it, as Kisame (and Baccarat, my senses noticed out of my view) froze and tensed even further.

"Because there are worse things than dying and I would rather go down fighting than poisoned." He answered... that still made no sense, I already proved I could immobilize him easily enough, so whatever the "worse things than dying" were, I could do if I wanted, regardless of him eating any fruit. _'What is it with this paranoid fish?'_

Seeing as he wouldn't back down, I took a quick bite before throwing it back to the fish, who caught it, still warily.

Seriously, what was his problem? The kids were already eating with no sign of issues, Honey devouring hers, hunger winning over fear, while Kimimaro took small, timed bites.

"There." I said to the most annoying shark in all the Blues with my mouth still full. "Not that this would prove anything. Not only could I make it non-poisonous in a touch, but you being paralyzed so easily shows that your toxin resistance is way lower than mine." I finished before swallowing.

He looked at the half bitten fruit, then at me, then back to the fruit and me again.

"And why would you tell me that?" He asked with a raised dark blue brow, on light blue skin, with his grayish blue rags, the monochrome motherfucker.

"... Because it's a fact?" I answered, not sure what was his doubt there.

It's not like I need to lie to them, I can kill all of them with a thought and am able to survive pretty well all by myself, I didn't need them for anything for it to be worth for me to lie to them. One's memories being 99% shounen anime also didn't really inspire lying that much.

With his historic of bad choices, I was almost expecting him to attack me again for no reason. Instead he took a bite of the fruit, body, face and Voice screaming tension. He swallowed his first bite with trepidation... then he devoured it with the same gusto as Honey.

Baccarat, who I had noticed also hadn't eaten, but at least had the courtesy of not throwing my peace offer back at my face -for the third damn time-, started eating her own fruit at a more sedated pace.

I could Hear the hunger in everyone there, so I wasn't surprised on how quickly they ate after getting over whatever paranoia they had about the fruits.

 _'Okay, things calmed down a bit, everyone is eating together, always a good first step.'_ I thought while eating my own fruit at a moderate rate. Directly connected to the Island by my coat as I was, I took all the needed vitamins and nutrients straight from root to vein, so I didn't really need to eat. It was still a pretty tasty fruit though.

"So..." I started, most stopping eating to pay attention, the fishman stopping cleaning his teeth, having already finished his fruit in three large bites. "Besides the whole being captured by it thing, how did you like my plants?" I asked for the third time, maybe someone would actually answer me one day.

… Once more there was an awkward silence _-'damn I hate these'-,_ Baccarat and the fishman stared at each other. Kimimaro ate his fruit while staring at nothing and Honey hid behind the fruit that was as large as her head to avoid anyone's sight.

*Cough* Baccarat cleaned her throat, getting the attention from everyone at the table. It seems she lost whatever glare game she had going with the fishman.

"First of all, thank you for saving us yesterday. I don't think any of us have properly thanked you yet. Bu-"

"Thank you for the thanks!" I interrupted her with a loud slap to the wood table.

Honey, still hidden behind the large fruit, eeeped and literally melted from the sudden loud noise, a quivering puddle of jelly being left on her seat.

Seriously, I've been after a thanks since I saved them from goddamn slavery. If she asks me how's the weather, I can take 'have a normal conversation' down from my bucket list and just go get some other things out of my bucket list at the bacchanal.

"Eh..." She stuttered on the unexpected interruption. "Sure..." She continued, taking a moment to recompose herself. "What I meant to say is, thank you for yesterday, you've really saved us. But it seems we are in an unknown island in the Calm Belt, and we really don't understand what is going on. If you could tell us if you have a plan or a way out of here that wou-"

She was interrupted again, this time not by me, but by an islet sized flying-fish Sea-King jumping from the ocean near the coast, flying over the us and attempting to get a mouthful of the Tree's leaf full branches.

It was stopped by the branches suddenly moving faster than the fish to surround and stab through the sea monstrosity in one quick move, killing it. The vegetation then quickly grew over it, absorbing the beast to fuel the Island's growth.

Said stabbing of an islet size fish just above us, had the side-effect of a giant droplet of blood falling on top of the table, covering it and all of the people seated around it in Sea-King's blood.

It didn't really reach me though, being stopped by my always present fungal armor, which absorbed it in a second, leaving it as clean as before.

In the time it took for it to do so, Honey -who was currently a puddle of blood and jelly above the vine seat- processed her situation, reformed into human form, covered in blood, and started screaming and running around the table, making two rounds around it before passing out face first into the blood puddle around most of the coast.

I made so the grass produced a similar fungi around the fallen kid to clean her up.

The other three occupants of the table just blinked, left speechless by the sudden and literal blood bath. Well, Baccarat and the fishman for sure, I still couldn't get a read on the white-haired kid.

I just created some fungal powder in my closed right hand and threw the white cloud in their general direction. Kisame was the only able one to react, trying to jump out of his chair to avoid the cloud.

With his still weakened muscles, he only managed to get himself half the way out of the chair and fall from its side, the back of his head hitting the soft, blood covered grasslands and ending in a headstand supported by the vine chair.

Some of the white cloud reached all three of the occupants and proceeded to grow over the blood covering them, leaving them looking as if covered in flour for a second, before the fungi ate itself and disappeared, leaving four spotless people.

There was another moment of silence, me looking at a still blinking Baccarat and Baccarat trying to understand what the hell just happened after she saw a fish the size of her home island jump out the sea, be killed by the apparently reactive giant tree, she being covered in its blood and then cleaned of it, all in less than ten seconds.

"Wha..." she sounded out looking in my general direction.

The fishman remained half fallen from his chair, too weak or too annoyed to get up, probably both. Kimimaro quietly went back to eating his fruit, also cleaned of blood by the fungi.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" She screamed, getting up from her chair and slamming her hands on the table. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" She screamed again, now pointing in the giant Tree's direction. "AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" She said staring at me and once more slamming her hands on the table.

I raised three fingers. "That was a Sea-King, a flying fish one, not too common but not the first one I caught around here. That is my Tree. And I'm a person, if you wanna get technical, a forest-person after eating a Devil Fruit." I answered her questions, putting one finger down with each.

Good, we're getting proper questions and answers going, this was almost starting to feel like a worthwhile social activity.

She just put her hand over her face and took several deep breaths, I could feel as her anger/frustration/anxiety (not sure which, humans were hard to read, maybe all of them?) spiked before slowly going down.

"Okay... okay... I'm surrounded by a possibly insane Devil Fruit user and countless Sea-Kings... okay..." I heard she mumble quietly to herself through my connection to the table. "Just... is there anyway out of there?" She asked more loudly, before I felt a spike of fear from her (that one was easier to recognize) "Can we even get out of here?" She asked again, looking at me warily.

I really didn't understand her fear right then, did she meant as in if I would allow it or as in if it was possible? If it was the former, I don't think I've done anything to indicate I was that type of person.

"Yes and yes. I was working on getting moving either way and I'll need to speed that up now with the marine response probably on its way here. And of course you can leave, I can take you after I finish said project, but, if you're able leave by yourself, you're free to go." My offer was punctuated by a giant eel's head poking out the sea with an octopus almost as large as the surface part of the Island in its mouth.

"I'll wait!" She quickly replied in a higher pitch than normal, watching the sea monstrosity go back underwater.

"Wonderful!" I smiled back at her fearful face. "Now, if there's no-" I was interrupted by the fishman, again.

"Why the hell did you save us?" He interrupted rudely, voice as confrontational as it has been since I met him.

I took a deep breath, still annoyed with the shark, but at least he was expressing his doubt solely through words. Already leagues better than a minute ago.

"Eh, mostly a coincidence. I just ran towards the first ships I saw in the distance, that they were slaver ships and that I freed you was just the results of an unlucky for me and lucky for y'all series of events." I answered.

…

There was another tense quietness, with the fish staring suspiciously at me, his suspicion and disbelief being almost palpable. Before Baccarat, who had by then finished taking several large breaths to regain her calm and wits, tried to keep the conversation going.

"Well... why are you on an island in the middle of the Calm Belt?" She asked the moment she realized that Kisame was intent on just glaring at me now and wasn't going to say anything.

"Hm? No idea, kinda of just woke up here some four years ago. No memories from before then." I answered, taken out of my staring contest with Kisame's dead shark eyes.

"What? No memory? Zero?" The fishman interrupted again, sounding ever more doubtful over my alleged amnesia.

"Hmm... Well, not really zero memories. There is a bunch of strange 2D series that I remember, anime I think they were called. Baccarat was even in one." I answered back, looking up and trying for whatever uncountable time it was to see if I could remember anything.

"... Oh crap, the fishman was right, he is insane." Though focused on my _memories_ , I heard Baccarat mumble quietly to herself, I only caught it because of my connection to the living table.

"Oi! I'm not that crazy! I think I did pretty well for being stranded by myself for four years with no previous memory!" I defended my fragile sanity.

What? I'm not unaware that I probably did have some screws loose from isolation and not knowing anything about myself, but I did believe I turned out well enough, all things considered.

"Ah... Eh..." She stumbled on her mumbles being caught, before stucking a forced smile on her face. "Mah~ Mah~ Don't worry about it, I meant nothing by it, but even you have to admit that 'I don't remember anything but...' 2D series? Animes? What are even those? is a very... strange background. That I, who never met you, am somehow in it is... _very_ strange" She said, the smile so brittle it might've been glass growing even weaker as she finished her explanation.

… Okay, when she put it like that, it did sound strange.

Well, I knew it would, but otherwise it's faking a whole backstory or coming up with excuses when I slip up, it's just not worth it lying to them, I don't really need them and keeping a lie or story going is more troublesome than just telling them to fuck off, might as well tell the truth. Still, when she told back to me, it did sound _very_ strange, I should've at least kept the "Baccarat being in it" part out.

 _'Eh, they were already weary of me before anyway.'_ I briefly looked to the side, Kimimaro, who was finishing his fruit, sensed me looking at him, stared back at me with emotionless eyes, and nodded firmly. _'… well, most of them were weary at least. Still can't get a read on the kid, but he's on my side... probably.'_

"Yeah, when you put it like that, I get it, it sounds super weird." I nodded and agreed with her, she also nodding along, weary and confused by the sudden agreement. "Anyways, do you know anyone named Gran Tesoro?... No! Wait... Gild Tesoro, yeah, that, know the guy?"

"Hã..." She released a nasal sound in confusion, lost by the sudden change of topics.

"Gild Tesoro, know the guy?" It was what I was hoping for at least, if change it the subject fast enough, maybe I can just push it away the strangeness from before.

It was either this or trying to make me _remembering_ Baccarat before we ever actually met a cheesy pick-up line. Pushing past and ignoring it felt like the slightly less creepy option.

And this question would also help find myself in the timeline... I made sure to write it out as the dreams/memories came to me, I had a One Piece timeline carved in quite a few trees around the Island. Probably should've asked how long has it been since Roger's execution for that though, far better to use that to find myself in the timeline.

"..." She stared at me for a second, speechless.

The fishman just glared at me, but he had been since this started. Honey was still passed out in the soft grass floor. And Kimimaro stared at Baccarat and Kisame tense and ready for any aggressive movements... against me? Probably, but I really couldn't read the kid.

"I..." She started before stopping and staring strangely at me, confusion, frustration and fear in her Voice, before she blinked, shook her head and continued. "I think I heard the name, a pirate from the New World?" She answered/asked back.

"Hmm." Well, at least that confirmed the obvious, that she had not met Tesoro yet, and it caught her and the fishman off guard enough that they didn't know what to do. "I see, I see." I said while nodding my head. "And say, how long has it been since Roger's execution?" I asked what, for her, would be another completely random question.

"Ehh..." She sounded, looking towards the fishman, who only shrugged in confusion, not understanding what was going on. It was a odd question and one I guess everyone in the One Piece world would know. "It's been thirteen years-"

"Fourteen." The stoic kid interrupted.

Baccarat blinked, then remembered her near decapitation and glared at the kid, an angry and tense silence settling in between them. Since no one bothered to correct him, I guess the kid was right. And the plan worked, already they forgot about my possibly worringly creepy weirdness with the more common weirdness thrown at them.

"So, fourteen years after Roger's execution, that's... 8 years before the canon start..." I thought to myself, trying to remember any worthwhile event that happens in that period of time.

"What?" I was taken from my thoughts by Baccarat's question, finding all three conscious table occupants staring at me.

"What, what?" I asked back, not understanding the question.

"What does Roger's execution has anything to do with... A cannon? That will be ready in 8 years? What?" She asked, already completely lost on what was going on.

"Ah, nothing, nothing. I was just thinking out loud." I waved off her questions, I'm sure if I did explain it, they would only doubt my sanity more. And again, they are just not worth keeping a lie going for.

"No, I'm rather curious on how someone who is allegedly an amnesiac stuck on an island in the middle of the Calm Belt apparently has plans eight years from now and knows about Roger and an upcoming pirate." The still half fallen and barely able to move fish-swordsman interjected.

"And I-" Before I could say how I'm rather curious on which grounds he expected to demand answers. I was interrupted by sensing someone from the orgy falling face forward to the grass ground.

Now, he wasn't the first person to collapse in the carnival of carnal pleasures going on just a couple kilometers away from the round table, but he was the first one that I noticed had fallen frothing from the mouth and twitching on the ground as his Voice grew quieter, instead of just collapsing from exhaustion.

"What the..." I mumbled to myself before properly focusing on the orgy, I was going to attempt to find what could be the source of the dying man's epileptic attack, instead, I found that, while he was the first I noticed, he wasn't the first overall, there was at least five dead bodies and one other convulsing person on the ground in the middle of the still on-going orgy. It was difficult to keep track of individuals in the middle of it, if I wasn't focused at it, like I was now.

"The fuck is this?!" I said out loud, ignoring the varied responses around the table as I suddenly got up and started walking towards the shoddy, improvised village at the coast-line while sensing around through my plants looking for the source of whatever was going on.

I may have been groggy from blood lost, but I'm pretty sure I put everyone far from any of my most dangerous projects and made a cordon of attacking plants that should've stopped any of the local wild-life. _'There should be nothing there that could cause th-'_

I stopped mid-thought and mid-step as I _saw_ through my plants as a small group of freed slaves sitting in a circle passed a purple and green pineapple-like fruit around, each taking a bite.

 _'Oh...'_ Seeing the people around the semi-circle finish the fruit and then go at each other with such ferocity that I thought they were attacking one another before it got more explicit, I found my answer. _'Oh...'_

 _'I had forgotten about those...'_ It had slipped my mind as it was nothing much, just one of countless combat stim experiments of mine.

Not even close to the most potent one, but I had made it after years of toxin immunity training. Both as a side effect of working so much with toxins and as practice to combat the deathtoads' poison.

That, along with whatever anatomy changes the Devil Fruit had made to my body, meant that what wasn't that potent to me, was probably going to induce a heart attack on others.

As it did with apparently seven people _-'oh, there goes the eighth'-_ eight people, as a woman collapsed frothing mid-coitus.

The man that was... well, above her, tried screaming for help while shaking her _-'yeah, that will help'-,_ but those around were too high and high-strung from the energetic fruit that even if they had payed attention, none would be in a state of mind to actually do anything about.

"Ah... shit." I told to myself and stopped walking towards the village, my coat's spacing itself into six tentacles and dragging me along in a strange imitation of an octopus walking inland. The tentacle arms extending and bending to push me forward in speeds I could only match while swimming inside my plants.

I ignored the red and white haired people running after me. Baccarat quickly staying behind, while Kimimaro actually managed to almost keep pace with me. The fishman, with his body still mostly unresponsive, was left to slowly drag himself through the ground in our general direction, already far behind. He didn't need to, but he was a stubborn fish.

With a thought, a small cloud of relaxants was released from the ground directly beneath the camp to combat the fruit's effects.

Those who were already too far affected didn't even notice, or didn't care if they did, continuing on as if nothing was had happened. Most of the freed-slaves, the ones still not that high and the ones didn't even eat the fruit, panicked on seeing the grayish cloud rising from the ground.

Either suspicious of the Island after seeing the side-effects of the purple pineapple or just suspicious of any strange substance rising from a orgy's floor. Both sensible points of view.

Not that it helped, there was nowhere to run, the cloud surged from the ground in one second and covered everyone in the next.

Some panicked and ran around the cloud, but it covered all the surroundings, so it did nothings. Others just looked on curiously as the fog-like cloud of spores ran through them. Others were still too high-strung from however many fruits they ate and still didn't realize there was even a fog.

I arrived at a small hill with a line of sight towards the village just as most of the orgy died down, everyone suddenly tired and forcibly calm from the mix of tranquilizers flying through the air.

The coat's enlarged spider-legs vines putting me back on the ground and retreating back to the coat.

A vine forced itself into the mouth of the three still alive people having seizure attacks, stopping them from biting their tongues, while thinner vines forced themselves through their skin, sinking into their veins and absorbing the stimulants running through them while releasing a multitude of anesthetics.

I don't know much about healing others, doubt they can take in plant cells as well and without consequences like I do for healing. But I can at least remove the poison/combat stim and stop their pain.

As the ones mid seizures calmed down, hopefully surviving, the ones more high-strung started to come down, the sedative fog combating the super-stimulant, the orgy dying out as a result.

Kimimaro burst from the woodlands behind me as I rubbed my head, trying and failing to mitigate the returning and growing headache. The kid stopped running besides me and just looked impassively at the shoddy, fog covered village.

First the conversation doesn't go well because of paranoid fish and their overly sensitive notions of insanity. And now the orgy was cause by heart-attack inducing drugs and is done.

This day is just filled with disappointments. Maybe I should release the Vice-Admiral and challenge him, those CP-something guys, Baccarat and Kisame for a free for all. At least that would be fun. Beat Kisame some more, see if I can win against Baccarat cheat powers.

Speaking of her, Baccarat was the next to exit the woodlands, panting in exhaustion behind the stoic white-haired kid from the sudden running. Why she followed the guy she had just accused of being insane into the woods, I have no idea.

The fishman was still far away, slowly dragging himself in our general direction with his barely responsive arms, Honey was still passed out in the coast. And Dice was still fighting off the toad's poison with the help of my plants in the middle of the Island.

I took a deep breath. And realized that I had no idea how to salvage any of this. The headache got stronger, and despite the many painkillers running through my system, I started feeling my missing kidney again.

 _'Screw all of this so hard.'_ Realizing there was no hope for any of the _nakama_ partying or the orgying that I had hoped for, my frustration with this whole interaction reached a new level.

With a heavy sigh and ignoring the still panting red-head and the emotionless white-head, a large wooden construct started forming besides me.

It was in the form of three hollow wooden arcs, meeting in the ground, curving as they rose up and meeting again in its top. The three arcs then started slowly rotating in place.

"Wha-" I interrupted the red-head by throwing another white cloud of fungi at her and the stoic kid's face. She spluttered and tried to wave it away to no success, the kid just looked at it without giving a clue of his thoughts on it.

The fungi did as I ordered before releasing, gathering on their ears, growing over it and ending up as two pale white sound blockers. Some growing over my own ears with a thought.

"WHA-" I once again interrupted the deafened red-head by punching the newly created structure. The calmly rotating arcs started wobbling along with their rotation, creating a loud shrill noise, growing steadily louder as it spun faster.

The initial noise was enough to gather the attention of pretty much everyone without their ears plugged on the coast, being barely noticeable for me and the others on the hill.

I didn't expect the increasingly higher pitch to be enough to bring most of them to their knees holding their bleeding ears. A quick thought made the rotating arcs dismantle themselves.

The noise stopped, leaving me, Baccarat and Kimimaro the only ones standing, looking over the mass of freed slaves reeling from the roller coaster of basically taking super-cocaine, then super-morphine and then being suddenly deafened.

Seeing the debilitated and confused crowd, I could only scratch my head. I had used the same type of attack to subdue troops of threerillas without hurting them. Too much, at least. It seems humans have more sensitive ears, who knew?

First accusation and ultimatums from ungrateful fishmen, then not getting the after victory nakama party I was hoping for, then needing to break apart the orgy because it was fueled by an apparently dangerous for others fruit and now I just deafened half of the freed slaves... this has been a disappointment start from finish.

Well, now I have another reason to do the responsible thing and focus on moving on before the Marine exterminating team gets here instead of partying or orgying, going to work and avoiding the people I had hoped to meet for so long.

Maybe when I have the option of kicking them out without it being a death sentence for them -kinda hard to let people go when their only other option is the Calm Belt-, it will be easier to have casual talks.

Heaving what must have been the thousandth sigh of today, I dissolved the fungi covering the ears of the bewildered Baccarat and the uncaring Kimimaro and addressed the crowd.

"Hello, my name is Senju, I'm the guy that got y'all out of the Celestial Dragon's ships and you're currently on my Island." I said loudly to the crowd.

"WHAT?" Was the response from one of the now deaf freed slave.

With sigh thousand and one, I created a tube sticking out of the ground in front of me that went down and connected to all the tree surrounding the camp, which hollowed themselves on my order, creating an improvised surround sound system.

Approaching it, I repeated my voice being echoed loudly around the whole place. "My name is Senju, y'all on my Island, and I-"

"WHAT?" The same voice asked again, somehow as loud as my echo enhanced voice.

"I SAID THA-" I started, screaming into the improvised megaphone/surround sound system.

"WHAT?" He interrupted again.

"For fuck's sake." I growled to myself. With a thought, vines surged from the ground, grabbing each of the people watching from below the hill.

It started a panic and a stampede as everyone attempted to run from the suddenly active vegetation. Still, they had no where to go and it seems none of them could fight like the fishman, soon enough the thousand something rescued captives were held captive again, this time by plants.

Two smaller vines grew from the vine around each held person, before each entered the ear of the person its parent vine was holding, releasing the algae-compost that was my go to physical injury solution.

It should work for busted ear-drums, I had never tested for that before... well, at least something good came of today, it's always good to know the limits of my creations.

A couple of minutes waiting in an awkward silence on the hill while ignoring the screams of panic and terror of the people as the green tentacle burrowed into their ears, the process was over and the vines released the re-traumatized ex-slaves.

"Okay, y'all hearing better now?" I said into the wooden tube/microphone, my voice echoing through the coast.

Hearing no "what" in the ensuing seconds, I continued. It was probably more stunned silence than understanding, but it was better than being interrupted.

"Perfect. Well, to make a long story short, I beat the Marines and saved y'all. Now, most of you were eating a super stimulant, with a large risk of heart attacks and other various cardio-vascular issues, the fog that you see surrounding y'all is a sedative that should counter-act its effects." I continued, trying to summarize the situation for the crowd. "Now, some vines will raise the corpses of the ones I couldn't get in ti-"

"Corpses?! He's killing us! The fog is poisonous!" Someone screamed from the crowd, and then everyone started running like headless chickens.

 _'Seriously!?'_ I took another larger than recommended dose of sedative, and raised the volume of my microphone/surrounding sound system.

" **QUIET**." I murmured into the mic, being echoed louder than thunder throughout the Island.

The sudden all surrounding voice, the pain of the loud noise on their recently healed ears and/or realizing there was no where to go, made it so crowd calmed down, or, more aptly, froze.

Lowering the volume of the system of wooden tubes and "HRGH" clearing my throat to make sure there would be no problem, I went on.

"The fog is not poisonous, I captured and stuck stuff in all of your ears literally less than two minutes ago, I could've just pierced your brains then, why would I-" I tried to explain how and why I didn't want to and didn't need to kill any of them, but was once again interrupted.

"He stuck mind controlling bugs in our brains! The fog is to help them grow-" The newest herald of stupidity was stopped from whatever imbecility he was about to spout by a Sea-King sized branch coming down from the Tree and piercing the ground besides the crowded ex-slaves with enough strength to make the coast shake.

"Next person to interrupt gets himself and everyone in a ten meter radius of him crushed. Anyone?" I gave a moment of silence for the next halfwit to shout his share of stupidity. There was only silence. "So, as I was sayin-

"WHAT?" A familiar voice shouted.

 _'Motherfucker!'_ There was not enough sedatives or painkillers to quell the rage- _'Ah, no, there we go...'_

As the newest dose of relaxants kicked in, I was over both the murderous rage that demanded I kill everyone in general direction of the voice and waaaay too tired to deal with all of this.

Having the wooden tube I used as a mic approach me, I once again spoke in its maximum volume.

" **I'M GETTING THIS THING MOVING IN ABOUT FIVE DAYS, THERE WILL BE SOME LIGHT EARTHQUAKES TILL THEN. IMMA LEAVING Y'ALL IN THE FIRST CIVILIZED ISLAND WE FIND.** " I said, voice echoing loud enough that I'm sure all of them heard me.

I thought about just leaving it at that, being done with trying to talk with all this crazies, unfortunately, my soft heart wouldn't allow it when mercy takes so little. Literally, it took a thought in this case.

As with said thought, two thousand identical cubes rose from the ground, all made from the biomass of the roots that covered almost the entire underneath part of the Island.

" **THERE IS A BED AND A BOWL THAT WILL PRODUCE ITS OWN FRUITS IN EACH CUBE, ALL SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION. I'LL SEE ABOUT PLUMBING LATER TODAY. BESIDES THAT, DON'T KILL ANYONE OR BE AN ASSHOLE, THE PLANTS WILL TELL ME IF YOU DO."** Finishing what was hopefully the last damn explanation of today, I sank into the ground, hoping to get away before the crowd could get its bearings back and-

My vines stopped Baccarat from rushing at me. And Kimimaro from rushing at her.

I stopped, half-sunk and with my eyes closed, and thought really hard about just ignoring the bound two and going to solve the mobility issue.

"HMFRFRFRR!" Baccarat's muffled screams only made that idea look more pleasant.

Still, I released both of them, the vines pushing Baccarat a bit backwards, I would rather not risk her managing to get within arm's reach of me again. Well, not now at least, definitely fighting against that power later on.

"What?" I asked, then twitched at the reminder.

"You can't just go away, how are you getting them- us out? How do we divide the houses? Wha-" I interrupted her with a third wooden arm that grew from my shoulder all the way to her own, resting the wooden hand on her shoulder, no way I was putting my real arm anywhere close to her luck stealing self.

A battalion of vine made humanoid grew around us throughout the hill. I felt Baccarat tense, both through Observation and literally feeling her muscles tensing under the wooden arm still on her shoulder.

"I'm leaving, don't care. Congrats, you're now responsible for deciding all of that-" I started.

"Wait, wha- no! I don't-" She tried to protest the new responsibility, but I just kept talking over her.

"- just get everyone in their homes and not killing themselves-" "-I just said no! I-" "The vinemen and Kimimaro should help you out." I finished and sank the rest of the way ignoring her protests.

The vinemen should keep the peace, Baccarat shouldn't abuse her newly given power too much and a order to help her should keep Kimimaro occupied. The kid, as always, did not seem to care.

Again under the sea of roots, and ignoring the profanities I could still hear Baccarat yelling through my connection with the plants, I moved to the large Tree that rested in the middle of the Island.

I wanted to go back to my coast home and maybe take some booze-fruits with Bob, but if I started putting this off, I would never stop. And while part of me is curious about the Marine response, kinda hoping to fight an Admiral, the more sensible part wanted to at least have the option of running away ready.

Arriving at the middle of the Tree whose roots connected the entire Island, I sat inside of it in a meditative stance and focused.

The roots, always growing, slow and steady, suddenly sped up their expansion. Many of the roots that covered the walls of the Island under the sea started producing bright lights and/or particularly sweet tasting algae to attract Sea-Kings for consumption. Mild tremors started rocking the Island from the many sudden movements beneath its surface.

***The Crimson Mustache, Marine Warship, a few miles from the Island. 4 days later. ***

Gobby was an average Marine, who joined only because it sounded more interesting than being a fisherman back home. Never intended or would rise much through the ranks, at best he hoped to retire as a Captain at a more calm Blue, the East maybe.

The whole Celestial Dragon guarding mission had made him doubt his career choice hard, being captured by living plants at the end of it had made him sure he had chosen the wrong career path, fishing sounded great then.

But at least now they had a relatively peaceful assignment. They just had to keep an eye out on the island from where the living plants had come from while floating around the monster infested sea that was the Calm Belt... Yes, truly, peaceful and relaxing.

"Oi! Gobby, where the hell is the island?" He was interrupted from his lamentations by his colleague's shout from the Den Den Mushi control chamber.

Taking a deep breath, he entered the room, already complaining as he did so.

"In the same place as always." He said, exasperation in his voice. "I swear, if you're drunk on your turn again and trying to get me to fill in I'l-"

"I'm not drunk damn it!" The current long range observation Den Den Mushi operator screamed back. "The fucking island is gone!"

Gobby just rolled his eyes, from the slur when he talked and the alcohol he could smell from here, he was certain the man was drunk.

Still, he approached then camera snail, looking first at its coordinates, shown on the back of its shell. It was aimed at the coordinates of where the island should be, but the snail was playing back an image of the empty ocean.

Nothing unusual, part of the reason there were two people and shifting turns around the surveillance -besides making sure the living plants weren't coming at them- was because even if the Calm Belt was, well, calm, there were still soft currents and weak winds, and the ship still drifted slightly. So, sometimes they needed to turn the Den Den Mushi slightly to get its sight back to the Island.

Sighing at his colleague's inability to find an immobile object, he started turning around the snail, looking through its projection for the island.

After a lot of turning _'The ship must have drifted more than I realized',_ he found the island on their right, far further away than he remembered.

And then he had to keep turning the Den Den Mushi to follow it as it seemed to keep getting further and further away... he took a quick look outside, no signs of enough drift on their ship for this, when he turned back to the screen, the island was already no longer there. After looking a bit more, he found it almost out of the snail's sight.

As he sat there wordlessly following the island around with the snail while trying to understand what was going on, his drunk co-worker finally contributed for something.

"Is- Is the island moving?" The man said, narrowing his eyes to try to focus on the island, probably not sure if it was the drink.

Now, Gobby wanted to say that somthing like that was impossible and tell the drunk to go throw some water on his face to sober up, unfortunately, the island was by now a speck on the surveillance snail, and kept getting smaller.

"Just... get the Rear-Admiral." Was the only response he managed to muster.  
 ****

* * *

****Yes, the first meeting was very awkward, couldn't find a way for it to realistically go any other way with one unsocial tree-man raised by gorillas and four high-strung recently freed ex-slaves. Any friendship there will be built by the troubles that come after.****

 ** **The characterization for Baccarat and Kisame might be a bit screwy, sorry about that. Baccarat would normally be more confident, but she is a recent raped victim that just got out of short time slavery. And Kisame -while normally fighting crazy- would've been a bit smarter about it, but he will probably have a fighting pit slave backstory, so he was very high strung about almost getting captured again. They'll get over it soon enough, just thought they would be more guarded than normal so soon after.****

 ** **For an image of the Island, it's pretty much my profile pic, with the large tree covering the enterity of the Island, a whole forest and ecosystem beneath the giant tree's roots. But eventually with a city on the part that's clear of roots on the pic.****

* * *

 **Probably unnecessary explanations:**

 ***** Honey started crying because she was going to say that she liked her mother, her only family, who was killed by the CD during her capture, it's mentioned in chapter 6. Just pointing it out why the random bout of crying.

 ***** A panthertail is about as long as four of the MC lying down, who is about two or three times the size of the average person. Keeping it vague because I haven't decided an exact numeric for the MC yet, which I would use as a base for the Island's giant animals' size. It will be something between Doflamingo (10 feet) and Kuma (22 feet). Also, a panthertail is pretty much a larger, dark brown or blackish blue nexu from Star Wars, only with just two eyes and with a bone plated, prehensile tail.

 **  
On power levels:** The MC is about Admiral level within his Island, and about Crocodile level without it. He is coincidentally weaker against the Admirals and Crocodile, as I intend to make it impossible to poison logias, and a lot of his strength/lethality will come from toxins. And besides being a logia, Crocodile's drying power is the perfect counter to the MC's plants.


	12. Chapter 12

**Last chapter on the Island. I know some have been bothered by it, and yeah, the pacing is slower than I thought it would be, so just letting y'all know. Next one might still have a scene in it, but quick ones, they definitely arrive at the first other island at it.  
  
Trying out a more third person narrative rather than the POV I went with so far, tell me which one y'all prefer.  
  
"**Heard **" and "** Voice **", with capital letters, are about Observation haki. "** Tree" **and "** Island" **with capital letters are about the giant tree in the middle of the MC's island and the island itself.**  
 ****

* * *

 ***The Island, Calm Belt, at the base of the Great Tree. 8 years before canon starts.***  
  
After four days of complete focus on finishing the last changes needed to get his Island mobile, Senju left his refuge in the sea of life beneath the Island to consult with his most trusted advisor on the newest issues.  
  
"I tried, Bob! I really did." A tall, lanky man with a full beard screamed at the nearby even taller and far more buffed three armed gorilla. The man pacing around the clearing they were in, while the gorilla was seated with his back to one of the many trees around.  
  
"Hmph." Was the gorilla's universal answer/grunt.  
  
"Of course I made a show of power and beat the strongest one up! That's socializing 101!" The man screamed back defensively, in disbelief of his friend's lack of faith. Completely ignoring that beating people up was socializing 101 for particularly aggressive three armed gorillas. Or most shounen anime.  
  
"Hmph!" Was the slightly more emphasized grunt of reply.  
  
"Aaaaah, what do you mean with "try harder"?! Do I just beat up all the 2000 people?!" Came the frustrated question back, the scratching violently at his hair in irritation.  
  
"Huh, rargh!" Were the open mouth grunts conveying, roughly, "Of course, dumbass!"  
  
Not a surprising answer, violence was the threerilla's first response, and more violence was the second response, in case the initial violence wasn't working.  
  
Luckily for the lanky man, unlike with his fellow humans, he had no reservations born of a lack of knowledge when interacting with threerillas, especially not with Bob. With them, he knew the perfect answer.  
  
"What did you say?! You three neuron primate!" He screamed while charging at the gorilla with a flying kick to the face.  
  
Said primate stumbled back from the force of the kick, before two of his arms stabbed into the ground, stopping his flying self. His third grabbed the attacking leg and threw the still airborne man overhead.  
  
Said man turned mid-air, landed feet first in a tree trunk nearby and used it as a board to push himself towards the gorilla. Starting the spar number one thousand something between the two.  
  
  
 *** A little later, still at the Island, at a coast close to the village.***  
  
  
Baccarat popped a grape like fruit into her mouth and let out a sigh of relaxation, after 4 days of constant earthquakes and complaints from idiots, the ground stopped shaking, most of the idiots were compliant and she had some free time to relax.  
  
Her hands rested behind her head as she laid once again on the plant-made lounge chair by the beach, enjoying the sun and the breeze.  
  
Taking in the clear skies, salty air and emerald waters, she closed her eyes and breathed in the crispy, salty air, she was in paradise. Not even the gigantic, carnivorous dolphins jumping out of the sea close by could remove her from her zen.  
  
The sudden sounds of screaming behind her, in the general direction of the village, could.  
  
With a sigh, now of irritation, she opened her eyes and looked to the sky, thinking really hard about just ignoring the situation, past experiences told her it likely had something to do with the psychotic albino, who refused to listen to her, so she might as well ignore it.  
  
Unfortunately, past experiences also told her that if she didn't go to at least try to mitigate the damage, she would have to deal with the even worse consequences later.  
  
She frowned and turned to get up, before stopping and blinking, as besides her was the 14 feet hobo that had disappeared without warning four days ago, now laying sideways on another plant lounge chair that definitely wasn't there before, smiling at her.  
  
She blinked at him, he blinked back, his clearly forced smile getting larger. She looked to the skies again, wondering what she did to deserve this, before looking to her side again and... both the hobo and the stretcher were gone.  
  
Had she imagined that?  
  
"Yo!"  
  
"Aaah!"  
  
The face suddenly above her own assured her that she wasn't hallucinating.  
  
She reflexively tried to get up, hitting her forehead on the chin of the far too close face, forcing the man's open mouth to close on his own tongue, one of the few parts of his body not covered by his fungal armor, and sending her back down rubbing her forehead, which felt like it had hit hard stone.  
  
Both had very different thoughts on the events. Hers were the more simple " _The hell was that?!"_ and his were the more delusional " _Bob was right, they are challenging me!"_  
  
Still rubbing her forehead, the redhead turned to his general direction.  
  
"What was th-'' She started, then was interrupted by a large fist to the nose. "Argh!" The red-head fell from the lounge chair in a mess of scrambling limbs, ending on the ground, with her back on the grass covered sand holding her bleeding nose.  
  
"WHA-" She started yelling, with a nasal voice from her likely broken nose, before stopping on seeing the tall form of the hobo hovering above her.  
  
She froze in fear, a mixture of the size difference, the knowledge that the man before had killed an entire Marine escort fleet and the eldritch abomination made of grasping tentacles, strange flowers and fruits that looked like eyes that he used as a coat keeping her in place.  
  
Then he ruined any seriousness of the situation by starting licking at the air, feeling out his bleeding tongue even as it regenerated before her eyes. After finishing healing his cut tongue, he stopped making silly faces at nothing and turned back to her.  
  
"So, ya accepting your defeat or we doing this?" He asked after a few seconds of staring at her frozen self, asking far too casually, as if he hadn't just broken her nose.  
  
"What?" Was the only response the stunned woman was able to give.  
  
The man tilted his head at her doubts. "Do ya wanna fight more?" He answered while getting into a fighting stance, the red-head scrambling to get up, holding her hands up in the universal sign of surrender.  
  
"No! No! No fighting, no one wants to fight! Totally accepting defeat over here!" She screamed back in panic, still confused over what was going on, but definitely not wanting to pick a fight with the unstable fleet-killer that had saved her.  
  
…  
  
There was a moment of tense silence where he stared at her while holding the fighting stance, Baccarat sweating with her arms still up, hoping to make her surrender clear, his serious face telling her nothing of his thoughts.  
  
Then he relaxed into a normal stance and smiled as if nothing had happened.  
  
"Great, then! Your power seems pretty fun to fight against, but we can try that later on." He said, smiling and nodding to himself, ignoring that Baccarat remained frozen with her arms up, unsure of what the hell was going on.  
  
" _I would really rather not fight at all."_ Was the red-head's thoughts as she watched the man focus on something else.  
  
He was seemingly looking at the nothing besides her, remaining quiet for a moment, before he snorted and mumbled a "Nice try." Before she could question what the hell that was about, he turned his focus back to her, forced smile back on his face.  
  
"So... we friends now or what?"  
  
"... what?" Baccarat couldn't help but feel like a broken record as she repeated the stunned question, still lost on what the forest-man wanted.  
  
"Did you not hear or not understand?" He said, looking down curiously at her.  
  
" _Don't ask what again, don't ask what again, don't ask what again-"_ She still did not understand what was going on, and clearly the treeman wasn't going to explain voluntarily.  
  
Having calmed down somewhat, she took a deep breath to gather her wits and formulate a proper response.  
  
Wincing from the pain said breath caused on her broken nose, she reminded herself that the man who caused said nose could make the air poisonous and was strong enough to pop her head like a grape, so she needed to remain diplomatic.  
  
"I heard, but while I'm very grateful for the save from the Celestial Dragon, and definitely owe you for that, it doesn't really imply friendship, does it?" She answered calmly, forcibly faking the calm into her voice but unable to remove the nasal tone caused by her injured nose.  
  
…  
  
"Doesn't it?" He said, face seemingly genuinely confused. "I saved you from the Marines, I beat the strongest one of y'all up and supplied drugs and alcohol... Those seem like all the bases for friendship covered..." He stated more to himself than her, looking up in thought.  
  
Baccarat just stared for a moment, when he put it like that it made a bit more sense. Still.  
  
"Yes, those are great things to form a friendship upon." _'Well, two of those are at least'_ "But after that, people need to actually get to know each other to become friends, otherwise it's just strangers who owe each other one." She finished, hopefully explaining concisely why one save didn't necessarily mean friendship. " _That you just broke my fucking nose doesn't help."_ She finished in a quiet mumble to herself.  
  
Or she thought it had been to herself. "Oh, that. I'll fix it." She had barely processed what he said before a hand larger than her head was covering her vision and holding her broken nose.  
  
It quickly compressed her hurt nose with its index finger and thumb, the flash of pain removing her from her stunned stillness, but the hand was out of arms' reach before she could react.  
  
Baccarat still reacted with the grace and speed of a dead cat, arms grasping at the nothing in front of her face where the offending hand had been a second ago, then went on to clutch her still hurting but now numbed broken nose, but feeling a strange, plastic like substance instead of skin.  
  
"There, I settled it and that algae shell should keep it in place and heal it in an hour or two." Her attacker said with a self-satisfied smile over his work. She stared blankly at him. "So... friends now?"  
  
She just brought another hand to her now plant covered nose, the pain having faded from the anesthetic effect of whatever this was. Then stared blankly at her savior/attacker/healer/possible-cause-of-aneurysm. His smile became a bit brittler in response.  
  
"So... just a subordinate for now, then?" He tried again, face full of confusion, not understanding why she wouldn't want to befriend the likely insane hobo.  
  
To be fair, befriending said hobo wasn't a bad idea when he currently holds you hostage on an unknown Island apparently under his control.  
  
So, cherishing the thought of a future where she is still alive, Baccarat took another deep breath, ignored the strange feeling on her nose, and calmed down before continuing.  
  
"And what do you mean by subordinate? What do you want subordinates for?" She asked, ignoring all the many other questions and problems with the sudden offer of employment and figuring out what said employment was about.  
  
"Eh... Subordinate stuff? I don't know, all of this seemed much easier in the anime." He half-assed an answer and then mumbled to himself. "Just some... human interaction, I guess." _'Do people just talk? Threerilla interactions are much better, they just either throw hands or obey, and fighting is much more fun than this.'_  
  
"Haaaaah~" With a heavy, unnecessarily loud sigh, Baccarat got up. None of this made sense, and the more she spoke with him the less she understood, but she wasn't swimming out of the Island, so might as well go with the flow. "Sure, whatever. It's your island, you saved us and this is giving me a headache. As long as I don't have to take care of the idiots by myself again, I'm your subordinate until we reach the next island."  
  
He had said he was leaving them at the next civilized island, so she might as well grit her teeth and bear with it until then. At least he seemed more naive and insane than villainous, so, more annoying than dangerous. Probably.  
  
"Why not? You dealt with it fine, and I don't want to~" Was his whining reply as soon as she gave in on the subordinate front. You give a hand and they want the whole arm.  
  
But this is something she is making no exceptions, she had just managed to get a break from that insanity, she refused to be thrown back at it!  
  
"Fine? Fine?! The brat is crucifying people in the town's square! There is already both a resistance movement against you and a cult forming around you! And I haven't had the time to sunbathe since I got here!" The last part was the most important. She just escaped from slavery, let her chill by sun in peace goddammit!  
  
"Yeah, that part wasn't so great." The man said, scratching at his beard in thought. "You should have told the cult to bury the offerings, burning them doesn't help me at all." He finished, nodding at his own wisdom.  
  
"That's not-" She stopped herself, realizing she hadn't said anything about the burning of fish that the cult had started doing recently. "Wait a second, you were watching?! Why the hell didn't you say anything?! You should've at least stopped the brat!" She screamed at the unstable man, not necessarily the safest approach, but she had been dealing with this insanity while he was just watching from the sidelines?! She almost died trying to stop the kid while he could've done so at any time?!  
  
Well, she had barely tried and can't really remember what she had stuttered when she had tried to convince Kimimaro to stop nailing "dissenters" to the town square, only remembering the judging, uncaring eyes of the brat as he tried to figure out if he should crucify her too.  
  
She stared in a mixture of determination and panic at the Treebeard, he just blinked back at her. She would not surrender here, regardless of the difference in strength, she would not be cowed! She refused to take on this burden again! She wou-  
  
"I was busy before, had to get the Island outta there before the Marines arrived." He answered with a shrug, interrupting her thoughts. "But sure, might as well do that now." He turned around and started walking towards the village before she could say anything else.  
  
She remained standing by the lounge chair for a moment, surprised at how easy that had been, before scrambling to follow the man, who was already far away thanks to his longer strides.  
  
She reached him after some mild jogging, and was about to ask what he was going to do when what he had said fully registered. "Wait, what do you mean by 'get the Island outta there'?" She asked, then turned around and noticed an important fact about the giant dolphins that she had been observing earlier, they were swimming forward, but were slowly being left behind. "Wait, we're moving!?" She screamed in surprise, freezing in place in shock and staring at the ground beneath her. There was no rocking or any other type of motion she related to a ship.  
  
The larger man stopped in response and stared at her while scratching his beard. "Yeah, I did say I was going to get it moving last time we talked, right?" He asked, seeming confused. "Right." He answered himself, nodded and started walking towards the village again.  
  
"No one understood what you meant by that!" She screamed back as she once again jogged to catch up.  
  
"Eh." He shrugged it off. She was going to ask how the hell they were moving, but he interjected before she could. "Ah, by the way, the sun rises from the east here too, right?" He asked without turning as they kept walking along the coast towards the village.  
  
"Wh-" She restrained herself from asking another stunned 'what' at the basic navigation question, trying to understand the insane cast-away would only make her insane as well. "Of course not, it's Spring, the sun is rising from the south."* She answered resignedly, shaking her head at his lack of knowledge.  
  
He stopped mid-step and turned to her in confusion. " _The hell do the seasons have to do with the cardinal direction the sun rises from?"_ Shaking his own head at the strangeness of the response, he turned around and continued walking, deciding to focus on the important part. "So the sun's rising from the south?"  
  
She just looked at him with a raised brow. "Yes." She said slowly, as if he had some learning disability. Not that he had enough experience with people to realize the difference in tone. He could feel her emotions were mostly tiredness and frustration though.  
  
He scratched his beard for a bit, feeling from afar the vague map he had drawn at a tree on his compound, made with what he could remember from the wiki. "And we're in the Calm Belt right?" He had arrived at said conclusion long ago, thanks to the lack of wind and currents and the surplus of giant sea monsters.  
  
"Probably." She answered, not really sure on their position, it's not like her captors could be bothered to let the slaves know their current position.  
  
But they were taken from the West Blue, the entrance to Mary Geoise was in the Grand Line, the Marines had boats capable of traveling through the Calm Belt and they were surrounded by Sea-Kings. That they were in the Calm Bet was an easy conclusion to reach.  
  
"Hmm." Having confirmed that they were in the Calm Belt, he continued. "So, from where we are, following the sun south, are we arriving at the South Blue, the West Blue, Paradise or the New World?" He asked, trying to find himself in the vague world map copied from his strange memories of the wiki.  
  
Now she stopped mid-step to stare at him, the tree-man stopping to tilt his head at her in response.  
  
"Almost everyone just calls the Grand Line, the Grand Line. Most in the Blues don't even know the division between Paradise and New World." She told him seriously. "You know that, apparently has at least a basic notion of geography, yet you didn't know where the sun rises from?" She asked him with a raised brow.  
  
Hoping against hope that he would say that it was all a prank and then presenting a normal, logical back-story instead of that delusional amnesia of his, maybe say that he was a castaway thrown in the Island by either the Marines or some other crew with a ship capable of traversing the Calm Belt like the Kuja Pirates. She was, of course, disappointed.  
  
"Ah, that one 2D series I mentioned that you were in before was set in this world. It gave a basic world map, but no information on astronomy or such." He said casually, as if that hadn't sounded completely insane.  
  
"Haah~" Baccarat just let out another heavy sigh, turned around and kept walking. "We would probably end up at the West Blue." She answered his previous question even as she walked away with her head in her hands. _'First slavery, now this. Is this some downside of my power? Did my luck finally run out? Do I have negative luck now?'_  
  
Senju scratched his head at the sudden wave of frustration he felt from her, he knew the answer sounded strange, to put it softly, but lying was too bothersome. And people were supposed to like honesty. Shrugging, he followed after, quickly catching up with his longer strides.  
  
"You suck at being saved." He told her as he got closer. "Couldn't ya try being nicer, saying a heartfelt thank you and/or becoming my life-long friend over this? Ya know, the basics."  
  
She proceeded to do the most mature thing she could right now, speeding up into her power walk in a futile attempt to avoid him. He just sped up in response.  
  
After about five minutes of an awkward, one-sided race they arrived at the clearing that separated the hastily created village from the overall Island much like at his own compound, in a few more steps crossing the line of predatory purple flowers and the wall of vines that marked the edge of the coast protected from the Island's animals. And some of his own experiments.  
  
They walked normally as they arrived at the village, Senju just staring curiously at the various signs of human life around them, the few people that scrambled out of their way, pointing and whispering at him, the clothes hanging from the windows of the cubes he had created, the distant sound of metal hitting metal that his omnipresence in the Island told was from a freed-slave had took up blacksmithing with some of the metal scavenged from the ships.  
  
He didn't know any of the various people that scrambled out of his way and mumbled around the street at his passing, and the four people around that he could say he kind of knew, he could barely hold a conversation with. But still, the mere presence of other people made him... warm? Content? Calm? It was an odd feeling.  
  
He didn't have more time to contemplate human pack instincts as they soon reached both their objective and the reason most of the village was empty, as almost all of the freed-slaves were currently packed around the clear square in the middle of the village.  
  
Or what was supposed to be a clear square, but that was now occupied by 23 people crucified in bone-made crosses, with a albino looking pre-teen currently putting up the 24th cross, ignoring the quiet sobs of the man stuck to it by bone-made nails.  
  
The crowd observed the grim procedures passively, murmuring quietly to themselves as they watched, too afraid to interfere, as the last time someone did so, Kimimaro had put the five interlopers into crosses themselves.  
  
Baccarat could only see the tip of the already erected bone-crosses, the crowd covering her vision, thanks to his height Senju was able to have a clear sight of the scene.  
  
So he could perfectly see as Kimimaro looked in his direction, released the spine-made rope he had been using to pull up the cross, letting it fall to ground he jumped over the crowd with a mid-air front-flip and landed on a perfect kneeling position in front of the confused forest-man.  
  
"My lord." Was all the kid said, voice serious and face directed to the ground.  
  
The crowd turned around to follow the world's smallest acrobatic psychopath, the murmurs going quiet as they noticed the presence of the strange man that had saved them, burst their eardrums, drugged them, un-drugged them and then disappeared in the span of an hour.  
  
"Huh." Was all that Senju was able to reply, confused on what to say to all of this. He would've asked Baccarat, but upon seeing the airborne Kaguya, she reflexively protected her neck and scrambled backwards.  
  
Really, the kid only tried to kill her once, that seemed like an overreaction to the jungle-man. All of the animals he had forcibly befriended had tried to kill him at least once.  
  
"So..." Treebeard drawled out while trying to think of what to say. "What's with all of this?" He asked, gesturing in the general direction of the garden of bone and pain.*  
  
"These are amongst the dissenters who have been complaining against your rule or plotting to escape." He answered in his constant monotone. "You've not specified any punishment, so I've captured them."  
  
"That seems like more than just a capture though?" He questioned the albino again.  
  
"I made sure not to pierce any important member, vein or nerve. This way they are restrained, punished and there is no long term consequence, until you decide otherwise." The kid answered easily, sounding far too used to torture.  
  
"Hmmmmmmmm." Was the forest-man's obvious attempt at stalling. "No harm done I guess then, just put them down." He finally shrugged, having no clue how to deal with the apathetic kid.  
  
Said kid who just nodded, stood up and turned around with a bone blade growing from his arm.  
  
"I meant down as in down from the crosses." The previously isolated man interrupted the coming execution, he may have no experience with people, but he had enough experience with murderous primates to recognize at least that.  
  
With a soft nod and a thought the bone growing from Kimimaro's arm receded and the ones holding up his various victims dissolved, letting their cargo fall to the ground, most barely moving in a mixture of pain and dehydration.  
  
"So-" Whatever he was about to say -which he himself wasn't sure, he was making all this up as he went- was interrupted by Baccarat surprisingly finding her spine, grabbing him by the collar of his fungi made shirt and pulling him down to her eye level.  
  
With him too surprised over it and sensing no aggressive intention, just an overwhelming annoyance, he didn't react to the approach of the luck-stealing woman. Curious on where this sudden bravery was coming from, he still didn't stop her even after he gathered his wits.  
  
"No harm done, no harm done?!" She roared, before forcibly turning the larger man towards the various people lying on the clear square, some of the crowd having dispersed from watching them to help the more injured of the recent crucifixion victims. "He's been crucifying people left and right, ignoring anyone else saying otherwise, you can't just go " _Oh, no harm done"_ after he tortured almost 30 people! You have to punish that asshole!" She finished at the still kneeling Kimimaro, panting in exhaustion of her own rant pointing.  
  
Lacking any proper argument against that, Senju went with. "24 people is closer to 20 than 30 though."  
  
"THE EXACT NUMBER OF VICTIMS IS NOT THE PROBLEM HERE!" She screeched at him. That albino is a prepubescent psychopath made her short reign over this group of ingrates a nightmare, she will see him punished!  
  
Her sudden courage evaporated when the man she was shaking suddenly grabbed both her hands with one of his larger one, holding her in place, she turned to look up just in time to see a fist larger than her head coming at her.  
  
She reflexively closed her eyes and braced for the pain, the weeks of slavery having beaten out her previous reflex of stealing his luck and try to dodge.  
  
When the expected pain didn't come, she opened her eyes, seeing his arm going behind her head, she followed it to see a hand covered in a wooden gauntlet holding back the crossed bone blades of Kimimaro. It didn't take a genius to understand what the brat had tried to do.  
  
"OKAY!" Before she could either panic or try to attack the brat, probably both, the world's tallest hobo interrupted, his loud shout grabbing the attention of all the crowd around him.  
  
"Okay, let's all calm down a bit now." Senju continued in a softer tone of voice. "I didn't specify any rules, and while he did go overboard, it won't have any long term consequence, so I ain't punishing anyone for anything today." He finished to the grumble and frustration of the crowd.  
  
Senju knew that he should probably punish the kid, but he had no idea how and didn't want to deal with it. That the kid was the most obedient/respectful of the bunch also helped his case.  
  
So, he released both the kid and Baccarat, whose hold on his shirt had by then gone limp, and stood up to his full height.  
  
"I'll set some ground rules now, expect y'all to follow and I'll make sure to keep them, at least until we reach the next island. Okay?" He asked. "Okay!" He himself replied when he saw some of the more frustrated people opening their mouths, likely to complain.  
  
A familiar tube rose from the ground before him, connecting through hollowed out roots to the cube houses around them, making a second improvised surround sound system. "Rule 1, don't murder anyone, if you really want someone dead, come talk to me and we'll see about it." For some reason that did not placate anyone. "Rule 2, don't cripple anyone." Easy enough. "And rule 3, don't force anyone to anything, as in rape, slavery, and the such." He concluded with a self-satisfied smile and nod over his own newest piece of legislation.  
  
He surveyed his audience for a moment, the mixture of stunned, scared and awed faces telling him absolutely nothing of what they thought. Their Voices only told him that they felt frustration and fear, also not very helpful.  
  
Seeing the awkward silence settled in, and determined to not spend however long it would take to reach the nearest island on this awkwardness, Treebeard tried the last recourse on his arsenal.  
  
"Alcohol-fruit?" He asked, offering the yellow-spotted green fruit grown from his palm to a bewildered stranger from the crowd nearby, who grabbed it reflexively, looking stunned and scared between it and the strange 14 feet man with a living, tentacled coat.  
  
The awkward silence remained as said 14ft walking open-bar continued to distribute the fruits, everyone too cautious to refuse the offered produce, but too scared to eat it.  
  
After he finished the distribution and everyone had their edible drinks in hand, the awkward silence still persisted. With no idea of what else to do, dumping everyone on a rowboat in the middle of the Calm Belt started to sound looking like a better idea by the second.  
  
Thankfully, one freed-slave unknowingly saved his compatriots from a likely death by Sea-King when he took a bite of the fruit, breaking its hard but brittle shell, which dissolved on the mouth, and reaching the somewhat lemon tasting alcoholic juice within.  
  
Seeing the man quickly finish his drink with no noticeable side effect, most took cautious bites of the fruit and sips of its juice. Their caution slowly disappearing with the increasing surety that the strange man with the nightmarish coat wasn't going to hurt them and the simple courage born of inebriation.  
  
The mumbling quickly started again, but this time not from hushed, fearful conversations, as had been the case for the last four days, as people were still unsure what was going on and Kimimaro's violent responses kept everyone on guard.  
  
This time, starting to feel secure after months of slavery and days of uncertainty, the conversations were lighter, some talking about their new drink, some about the strange treeman who made said drinks, some about their homelands.  
  
As a more peaceful atmosphere settled in, Senju smiled a more genuine smile while making his way through the crowd towards the still downed victims of crucifixion. Seeing the signs of civilization and walking amongst the people had been nice, hearing their idle conversation and having some even talk to him -even if mostly to ask for a second drink- was nicer.  
  
Everything wasn't perfect. Baccarat only stopped annoying him because she decided to drown her annoyance at him with alcohol, currently inhaling a fruit with three others already ready by her side. And Kimimaro followed quietly behind him, making no move to join the growing festivities.  
  
Still, the people in general were feeling more at ease than before, and he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of… peace? Calm? He wasn't sure, but it definitely wasn't bad.  
  
So, as he started growing healing algae over the albino preteen's victims' wounds and forcing alcohol-fruits down their throats to silence their complaints and groans of pain, he continued smiling.  
  
And when an already drunk villager stumbled upon him and started vehemently defending that "Booze-fruits sounds way better than Alcohol-fruits", he laughed.  
  
  
 *** At the same place, at the same time***  
  
  
Sho, the first to drink from the strange fruit given by the even stranger man, was one of the many unremarkable slaves captured by the now dead Celestial Dragon. An overall average young man at the wrong place, at the wrong time, he was enslaved after said Dragon killed one of the slaves that carried his palanquin in a fit of rage after said slave had stumbled and rocked the Dragon's transportation.  
  
Everything was a bit blurry after he was suddenly dragged from the crowd that had been bowing to the Dragon's passage, he was quickly beaten down by the Celestial Guards and made to carry the palanquin along with three other slaves for the rest of the trip, then it was simple flashes of pain and hunger for the last weeks as the was dragged along with the World Noble's procession.  
  
When strange plant-made tentacles burst from the walls of the ship he had been caged in, he was sure that it would be his death. As the tentacles dragged or crushed the guards around the slave pens, Sho had accepted his death to whatever sea monstrosity that was, he was even thankful in some deep part of his psyche. He didn't want to die, but he also didn't want to live as a slave.  
  
He was still of the same mind even as said plant-made tentacles almost gently took the slaves that were out of the pens and held them above the ships, as if a child showing off their newest toy.  
  
When said ship was launched into the air by even larger underwater tentacles, he just gave up on understanding what was going on, when the ship seemingly spontaneously opened up and threw him in a giant square blob that healed all his wounds and took away his pain, he gave up on understanding anything.  
  
When he woke up, pain and collar free, on a verdant beach with fruit trees all around, he was sure he had died and went to heaven. When said fruits gave him more energy than ever, resulting in him running up and down the beach for hours, laughing, screaming and crying over his own newfound freedom, he stopped thinking at all.  
  
When said energy didn't leave, resulting in him going almost two days awake, with thoughts at full throttle and always returning to his short but already too long time of slavery, he thought maybe this wasn't heaven after all. When that endless energy and insomnia somehow turned into the most animalistic orgy he had ever seen and the only one he ever participated, he was sure this wasn't heaven.  
  
And when a half-giant of a man, covered by a living, squirming coat of vine like tentacles with control over their surroundings suddenly gassed everyone into a calm state, burst their eardrums and said he saved them and was going to leave then on the first island they pass by, he understood he should have remained in his earlier state of giving up understanding what the hell was going on.  
  
So, when said strange plant-man thrust a fruit into his face, he had no resistance and just ate it without question. When said fruit's juice was like a refreshingly cool lemonade, followed by a pleasurable burn that he hadn't felt since he was captured, he decided that he didn't really care what was going on.  
  
As almost normal conversations started all around him, a relaxed atmosphere settling in instead of the tension that had been on the air for the last four days, he just hoped it continued peacefully like this.  
  
He thought about going to meet the strange man that was apparently in charge of the Island, but after seeing him accidentally put the far too light-weight of a drunk that had been discussing the superiority of Booze-fruit as a name in fetal position after a playfully elbow to his chest, he decided against it.  
  
The taller man did mumble an "Oh shit." And went about healing said drunk along with the victims of the scary-kid he had been healing before -as Sho took to calling the albino brat responsible for most of the tension of the last four days-, which showed at least it wasn't purposefully. "Algae here, algae here, bacterial eating fungi ooooover here..."  
  
But Sho had suffered enough during the last few days, so, instead of meeting the his strange savior, he took another of the Booze-fruits -which had by now started growing from vines crisscrossing above their heads- connected to the roofs of the cubes around the clearing, and headed to a corner.  
  
Seated on a small wooden bench resting by the wall of one of the many cube houses at the edge of the square, he drank quietly from one the fruits he took, looking on as people talked, all somewhat more relaxed than in the last six days, which by themselves were infinitely more relaxed than the last months or years depending on which of the freed-slaves you asked.  
  
Sipping on the alcoholic juice and watching the almost casual conversations all around, he decided that this might not be heaven, but it was still nice.*  
  
  
 ***Meanwhile, at the same time, at the cube prison holding the captured Marines***  
  
  
Vice-Admiral Comil sat in quiet meditation in the middle of the cubic prison holding him and many of his men at bay.  
  
He continued to focus on his breath and musculature even as he let the words of the captured CP-0 agents flow through him like water.  
  
The two agents had been surveying and examining the cube since their imprisonment, and had been trying to get him into their prison-break plan for just as long.  
  
Despite their many plans and appeals to Comil's sense of both duty and survival, the Vice-Admiral refused to take part in any of it. Which in turn stopped their plans, as he was both likely the strongest fighter left and needed to galvanize the captured Marines into action.  
  
Right now they were once again trying to convince the blond Marine that their chances of survival and success of a violent prison break were greater than 0. They were once again failing.  
  
Comil was not a coward. Though he did not wish for it, he did not fear death either, he knew and accepted it was coming for him, perhaps sooner than he previously expected, considering their situation.  
  
But he was also a Vice-Admiral, responsible for all the men under him and charged with making sure to save as many as he could. So, instead of gambling it all on being able to defeat the man who had taken on both him and Onigumo at their full strength and with surprise on their side, Comil waited.  
  
He knew that the strange man that had killed his fellow Vice-Admiral could've done the same to him and any of the other Marines since their capture. That he hadn't done so, indicated he didn't wish to kill them.  
  
The Vice-Admiral did not know why that was, be it a moral restrain or some plot, but it meant that the man wanted them alive for now, and Comil hoped to keep it like that.  
  
The man had been the defender in their fight, just a person not wanting to be enslaved, something Comil could certainly understand, so he would not begrudge the man for the fight or the results, and still held some hope he could solve peacefully.  
  
At least to try to get his subordinates to safety, a Vice-Admiral should be of enough worth as a hostage by himself.  
  
He would not close off the possibility of diplomacy without trying it first, and the escape attempt the CP-0 agents were suggesting would likely close such avenue.  
  
If diplomacy did not work, he could attempt their suggestion later on. Though the vines burrowed into him still kept him weakened, the juice-full fruits growing along the walls of their prison ensured the Marines and Celestial Guards were well fed and hydrated, so he would have his forces at full strength, even if he himself would not be.  
  
Until he was sure diplomacy was impossible, he would remain cooperative, and hope to reason with the man he had attempted to kill to avoid having to enslave for his superior officer just 6 days ago. ' _What could go wrong?'_ He thought sarcastically to himself.  
  
But until said man arrived, he waited in meditation, spending most of the last 6 days conserving his energy and thinking on how to approach this, occasionally talking to his men and consciously ignoring the CP-0 agent.  
  
Feeling a Voice suddenly burst into existence along the walls of their prison, it seemed his wait was over.  
  
He opened his eyes just in time to see the CP-0 agents turn towards the wall, having felt the same as him. Them being the only three prisoners to react before anything was visible.  
  
All reacted though, when with a sound akin to loudly ripping paper, the man that had imprisoned them suddenly surged out of the northernmost wall.  
  
The previously bored Marines all over the prison jumped in response, most reaching for swords or rifles that were no longer there, before stopping in various fist fighting stances, all aimed at their captor.  
  
Comil wasn't sure what they expected to do against the man who threw their ships from sea, but their courage still sent a great surge of pride through his chest. An equally great surge of shame coming later on as he remembered what that courage had been put to use for.  
  
Still, regardless of any bravery, none of the Marines wanted to make the first move, all scuttling aside as the vegetation covered man made his way towards the seated Vice-Admiral.  
  
Things were going... well, all things considered. Their captor had shown himself and seemed intent on talking with the Comil, which was what he wanted in the first place, and his men seemed to still be brave enough to have his back if needed, and sane enough to not start anything needlessly.  
  
Unfortunately, the CP-0 agents were not his men and did not get the memo on that second part.  
  
He tensed but did not move when the two agents exploded into motion the moment they felt their target got close enough.  
  
The man of the duo quickly took to the air in a quick kick of geppo, before throwing himself forward with another kick to the air. The woman waited a millisecond for her fellow agent to get airborne, before kicking the wooden ground with enough strength to crack it as she charged towards the taller man.  
  
The two agents covered the distance between them and their targets in less than a second, the woman, without her sword close by, covered her hand in haki to use an improvised hand-based rankyaku to cut through said target, while the man approached from above with a shingan at the ready.  
  
Like Comil had expected though, both were useless.  
  
The target lowered himself with a half-body bow to avoid the flying shingan, while stretching a hand covered in haki and a strange, gray wood armor to grab the swinging arm.  
  
The improvised rankyaku did cut through a bit of the wood before being stopped, after that though, the plantman forced the arm back into the the female agent's face, his larger hand allowing him to hold both the arm and her head, before lifting her by it and body-slamming her into the ground, which came alive to grow roots and vines around her to keep her in place.  
  
By then, the male agent had turned around in a series of quick geppos to launch himself at their captor, who turned around to grab the haki covered shingan in his palm. The agent's index finger pierced through said palm, but it didn't seem to bother the treeman as he closed his hand around the agent's and used the captured arm to swing said agent at the ground, which once again came alive to imprison the newest member of the ground prisoners.  
  
Comil sighed, while the rest of the Marines nearby stood at ready but unsure of what to do, not just a few of them looking towards the bound Vice-Admiral for instructions.  
  
The strange man then stood up to his full height, patted himself for non-existent dust, looked at the captured CP-0 agents and snorted. "Well, not that bad of a try." He said with a smile "Better luck next time." With that he turned and made his way through the corridor of stunned Marines to sit cross legged on the ground, in front of Comil.  
  
The Vice-Admiral stared at the man who had captured them, now having the chance to give him a good and calm look.  
  
Long brown hair and an equally long brown beard covered a tan face, both sprinkled with seemingly random pieces of vegetation, dead green eyes and a forced smile barely visible under all the facial hair.*  
  
Besides that, the man stood perhaps a head or so taller than Comil, who was freakishly tall himself, but was more lanky than Comil's broad chest.  
  
As the blond Vice-Admiral finished his examination, the man interjected.  
  
"So, why didn't ya help them along?" He asked with a tilted head. "The vines should weaken ya, but I betcha you can break through them, those two might have had a chance with ya by their side." He finished, head still tilted and the unnerving smile still on his face.  
  
"I have no illusions of our chances of victory, me joining them would've made no difference." He answered seriously, stare and Observation focused on the man in front of him.  
  
With both his senses and haki he could only feel some confusion, annoyance and curiosity from the man. That was good, considering their first meeting was Comil trying to enslave said man, he had feared anger and retribution.  
  
The castaway looking man just scratched at his beard in reflex. "Well, it would've made it more fun for me." He answered, the forced smile becoming a little less forced as he thought about glorious, heart pumping combat.  
  
Comil just maintained his serious face. _'One of these types.'_ "Regardless, I saw no point in being beaten and potentially killed in a plan doomed to fail." He answered still seriously.  
  
…  
  
There was a silence as the two stared at each other.  
  
"Eh, you're kinda boring." The treeman declared with a shrug, the Vice-Admiral kept his poker face as he stared at his captor.  
  
"And you're holding the equivalent of between two to three Marine warships hostage." He replied, ignoring the insult. "I would like to know what you intend to do with them."  
  
"No idea." The bearded man admitted with a shrug. "I wanted to get y'all and the Celestial Dragon together to try to bargain with the Government to not be a wanted man and all that. But I doubt it's gonna work with the Celestial Dragon dead." He thought aloud to himself. "Ya know the Marines better than me, whatcha think? Would they exchange something for y'all?" He asked the highest ranked captured Marine.  
  
Comil stared at the strange plant-person/thing seriously, it blinked back.  
  
"With the Celestial Dragon dead, the Government definitely won't offer amnesty, and will come at you with everything they got." He answered honestly, to which the thing before him just hummed. "But the Marines will likely offer ransom for us, though I can't be sure of the value." He finished.  
  
His captor leaned forwards with a wide smile. "And ya think they would trade a Devil Fruit for a Vice-Admiral, two CP-0 agents and two ships worth of cannon fodder?" He said, face uncomfortably close to the Marine.  
  
"No, they wouldn't trade anything dangerous like a Devil Fruit or weapons, the ransom would be paid in gold." He said, maintaining eye contact.  
  
"Ah, that's a bummer, I really wanted a Devil Fruit to test stuff out." The brown haired man said scratching the back of his head. "And money's not that useful to me either. Eh, I will just keep y'all here till I can think of something, it's always good to have hostages."  
  
While the answer certainly didn't satisfy the Vice-Admiral, at least it meant he had no intention of killing them. For now.  
  
"And the exchange would probably be an ambush either way, right?" Senju continued casually.  
  
Comil could've tried to lie to convince Senju to go for the ransom, leading to a likely ambush by the Marines during the exchange. But the Vice-Admiral was always bad at lying and knew his own flaws, so he answered truthfully. "Yes."  
  
Besides, said ambush would likely be to kill the Celestial Dragon murderer more than to save him and his men, who would only be acceptable casualties.  
  
"Ah, well, I'll think more on it after I get to another island." The plant-covered man said with another shrug. "I'm solving the issues with the village right now, but keeping the clones going is always good training so... Wanna play a game or something?"  
  
The Vice-Admiral could only blink at the suddenness and strangeness of the question.  
  
He did not understand anything about the village or the... clones? That the other man mentioned before, but the part he understood, being asked if wanted to play a game, was not something he had expected. He somewhat feared it was euphemism for a coming torture.  
  
So, the seasoned Marine eloquently voiced his doubts. "What?"  
  
"A game. It's good to keep at least one other me walking around to train my concentration, and there is nothing to do besides dealing with the village, which me-me is doing, so I thought this-me could try to play a game, don't remember if I ever played one before, so thought it might be nice. Playing against myself probably doesn't count. From those anime things I kinda know checkers, shogi, chess, poker and gungi, wanna play one?" The man answered with a smile and some hand gestures, acting as if anything in that explanation made sense.  
  
Comil closed his eyes, focused on the meditation training he had learned haki through and decided to ignore the absolute nonsense his captor just said, just taking note of how unstable the man currently holding himself and his subordinates hostage clearly was.  
  
"I do not know this gungi that you've mentioned, but I'm familiar with the others. It's been a while since I last played, but I was quite good at checkers." He answered, ignoring the insanity to focus on the only part that he had understood of the rant.  
  
"Great!" His captor said with a large, genuine smile. The familiar square filled square tablet that was the checker's board grew from the ground in front of him, between the two seated men. "So, black or white?" Said captor asked, pointing at the wooden pieces that had grown along the board.  
  
Neither were actually black or white, but a light gray and a dark brown respectively.  
  
Either way. "Black." He answered, and the board automatically twisted so the brown pieces were in front of him. "Hostages won't help though, a dead Celestial Dragon still supersedes a captured Vice-Admiral." He returned to their earlier conversation as he made the first move.  
  
"Heh, maybe they'll send an Admiral then, that will probably be a fun fight." His captor and now opponent answered with a more feral smile as he took a while than moved his piece in response. "What's the worst that could happen?" He shrugged after putting his piece down.  
  
Comil just closed his eyes and shook his head at the carelessness of the response, and did his own move without answering.  
  
"Oh yeah." His opponent interrupted the quiet that had settled in during their match. "Since it seems y'all gonna be staying here a while, wanna something for the cell." He said, gesturing with one hand to the cell around them without taking his eyes off the board.  
  
The various captured marines, who had formed a circle around the playing two, jumped away from the simple hand motion in their general direction.  
  
"Some beds would be nice." He replied, passing along the major complaint his subordinates had during the last six days, also without taking his eyes off the board. The fruits and their juice were apparently quite tasty, but his subordinates missed beds -or at least the hammocks that they had on the ships-.  
  
And booze, but Comil decided that correcting their sleeping situation was more important for now. Though he was sure most of his subordinates would disagree.  
  
The Vice-Admiral saw through the corner of his eyes as various rectangular slight elevations rose from the ground, a light green grass covering their upwards pointing side, making strangely natural beds even as they continued to play.  
  
Well, while their captor definitely was insane, at least he seemed civil.  
  
  
 ***Meanwhile, at Marineford***  
  
  
"I see." Sengoku said into the Den-Den Mushi's microphone. "Continue following the projected path and surveying the surroundings, report as soon as you get any new information."  
  
"Yes, sir." Answered the communication snail, currently with a red mustache on its face. Sengoku made a point to ignore the loud sigh that accompanied the answer.  
  
The Fleet-Admiral ended the call and let out his own sigh as he leaned on the chair behind him, thinking on the last report of Rear-Admiral Jonathan.  
  
Either the largest reported case of a Lily Carnation yet, or a Devil Fruit user capable of moving an entire island who attacked and either captured or killed a World Noble.  
  
Neither was good news, and now they had just lost sight of it.  
  
The Island was faster than the propulsion of the Marine ships, it slowly gained distance before disappearing from the sights of the Rear-Admiral's ship, which was now following the straight-line path the island had been on, hoping to find it somewhere along the way as it headed to the West Blue.  
  
Sengoku let out a second sigh. _'I'm getting too old for this.'_  
  
"Sir?" The uncertain voice of the petty officer still standing at attention at his left reminded him he wasn't alone.  
  
"Have you brought it?" He asked instead, the young man quickly passing a poster to him. In it, it showed the picture of a gigantic tree covering a relatively small island beneath its canopy, the only picture they had been able to get of the Island and/or the creature that controlled it. "Hm, good, send copies out to every Marine base within the West Blue, with orders to only follow it and report its movements." He said, giving the picture back to the officer, who saluted and bailed out of the office.  
  
The West Blue was a particularly well occupied Blue, and the chances of finding the island with every Marine there in alert were pretty good. Unfortunately, the thing had taken out at least two Vice-Admirals and two CP-0 agents, some Captains and Commodores of the Blues wouldn't be enough to stop it.  
  
With that knowledge, Sengoku knew he would have to send either an Admiral or a particularly strong Vice-Admiral after it. And after a quick check, Sengoku found there was only one such person currently at the West Blue.  
  
So now he found himself bracing for the coming headache he knew the conversation would be, and then picked up the Den Den Mushi.  
  
 _ ***** Purupurupurupuru, purupurupurupuru, gatcha *****_ The snail rang twice before the called Marine answered.  
  
" _Oh, Sengoku, you almost never call, what's this about?"_ A carefree voice answered, without any of the formality found in most Marines.  
  
Sengoku had been about to answer, when a roar echoed through the snail, and the far away voice of another Marine sounded out.  
  
" _Vice-Admiral Garp! It's trying to break through the cage, sir!"_ A panicked Marine screamed from the background. " _Well, then beat it back into it!"_ Garp screamed back at the Marine.  
  
"Dammit Garp! If you're bringing another Sea-King to the East Blue I swear I will put you in charge of guarding Toto Land's borders for a month!" Sengoku screamed back at his old friend.  
  
He knew that his friend hated guard duty in general, especially so over Toto Land's borders. Recently the Marines had taken a non-interference policy with the monstrous woman, and almost no pirate was insane enough to attack Big Mom. So it was just a lot of nothing, which was already a bore for Garp. And recently Linlin started trying to... _woo_ Garp into fathering a child, Sengoku had never seen his friend as scared.  
  
" _Bah!"_ Was the answer he got. " _The last one worked out alright, took the arm right off Red-Hair. Bwahahahaha."_  
  
"And it's been terrorizing the nearby islands since!" Sengoku roared at the snail, he had been as surprised as everyone else when the almost Yonko level fighter lost an arm to a relatively small Sea-King, but it did not forgive the loss of life caused by the rampant sea creature.  
  
"R _elax, relax."_ The familiar voice answered from the snail, and even if he couldn't see him, Sengoku was sure his friend was with his pinky finger up his nose right now. " _I promise I won't bring any Sea-King over."_ He said, calming some of the Fleet-Admiral's nerves, Garp was careless enough to accidentally break a promise, but he would never intentionally do so.  
  
" _So, what's this about? Finally got tired of that stuffy chair and want to take down some pirates with me again?"_ His old friend questioned. And despite him being right about Sengoku being tired and wanting to go back to the good old days of sailing around beating bad guys up, it wasn't what this was about.  
  
"Unfortunately, no." He answered with a sigh. "There's been an attack against a Celestial Dragon convoy, a probable Lily Carnation sighting, perhaps a Devil Fruit user." He gave the Vice-Admiral a quick summary.  
  
" _Hmph, so one of the Heavenly Worms got caught by the world's deadliest flytrap?"_ Said perhaps the only Marine could say something like that even at Mary Geoise and get out unpunished. " _Well, if it's a Lily Carnation, how bad are we talking here?"_ The Vice-Admiral asked, knowing how dangerous that type of flora could be.  
  
"An entire island bad." Was the succinct reply.  
  
" _Ah, so like Mallora."_ The voice on the other side replied with an audible flinch.  
  
Both old Marines could vividly remember the "Tragedy of Mallora", as it had become known afterwards. It happened soon after the discovery of the predatory plants at the Boin Archipelago, the Marines that had faced the plants thought they had killed them all, but a small bud survived in one of the Marine warships, and hid there as it hitched a ride to Mallora, a not very large but a densely populated island at the South Blue.  
  
Sengoku had only participated on three Buster Calls during his long career, it was three too many in his opinion.  
  
"No." He answered with a far-away voice, remembering the fungal jungle growing over the city and the countless plant-puppets made of infected people. "It didn't just infect an island, it became an island, it walked away from the Calm Belt towards the West Blue, our ships recently lost sight of it."  
  
…  
  
There was a tense silence where the Fleet-Admiral knew his friend was digesting the news.  
  
The plants weren't overly dangerous by themselves, but they grew quickly and exponentially, and if one had the freedom of mobility and the largess needed to walk away with an island... " _Fuck."_ Garp summarized their situation.  
  
"Indeed." Sengoku replied. "That is why I need you to remain in the West Blue for now, I'm passing along this information and a picture of the Island to all of the bases around the Blue, and I need you to be nearby and ready for a quick response." He told his most trusted friend.  
  
Whatever Garp had to say in response, was interrupted by a loud, shrill sound that Sengoku knew from experience to be that of claws ripping through steel.  
  
" _Vice-Admiral! It broke through the cage!"_ The previous voice screamed in the background again. " _Ah! Don't let it get away, it's the perfect training partner for my grandson!"_ The Vice-Admiral screamed back in response.  
  
"What did I just say about bringing Sea-Kings to the East Blue?!" Sengoku roared at the snail again.  
  
There was the sound of various, incomprehensible yells on the background and the beating of large wings. " _Ah, sir! It's flying away with one of the ships!"_ He heard a Marine closer to the snail scream.  
  
" _Well."_ Answered his old friend. " _It's not a_ Sea- _King."_ He answered with the same impetuosity as ever. Whatever reprimand Sengoku was about to give was interrupted by the Vice-Admiral. " _Gotta go deal with this real quick, I'll stay around the West Blue, just warn me when you find the plant!"_ Garp said and quickly ended the call on his superior officer's face.  
  
The Fleet-Admiral just put his face in both his palms and hoped to retire soon

* * *

**With this it ends the training/prologue arc! Like I mentioned above, arriving at another island in the next chapter, then some filler(ish) villains before a big confrontation. And considering this chapter's last appearence, the MC is screwed.  
  
There was no laughter from the MC in this chapter, but next one I'll start using a One Piece laughter for the MC. Going with Ki, from 木 Ki which is the kanji for tree, suggested by Mini_coopa2, structuring it like Enel's or Blackbeard's laugh. As in "Ki-hahaha". If I find it natural enough I'll go back to change any previous laughter into it.  
  
If anyone is curious, while this was happening, Dice was unconscious after challenging a deathtoad again as soon as he woke up from the last challenge, Honey was hidden in one of the many cube homes and Kisame was resting on the roots beneath the Island, trying to avoid the others.**

* * *

**Probably unnecessary explanations:  
  
1 -** "Was the red-head's thoughts while she watched the man seemingly focus on something else, looking at the nothing besides her for a moment, before snorting, shaking his head and mumbling. "Well, not that bad of a try.""  
  
That was him reacting to the attack on his clone by the CP-0 agents. As it happened at the same time. Just to make it clear in case anyone got confused.  
  
 **2 -** "Of course not, it's Spring, the sun is rising from the south."*  
  
Couldn't find anything on the sun's cycle on One Piece, so might as well make the world a bit more wonky with the sun's course changing with the seasons.  
  
 **3 -** "So..." Treebeard drawled out while trying to think of what to say. "What's with all of this?" He asked, gesturing in the general direction of the garden of bone and pain.*  
  
Didn't want to make a whole conversation to expose this, but just to explain that while the MC is omnipresent on the Island and had seen the crucifixions happening before being physically there, he was focusing on making the modifications needed to get the Island mobile, so wasn't following the why.  
  
It's an omnipresence without the brain capacity necessary to follow everyone, so he sees everything, but isn't paying attention to everything.  
  
Also, yes, Kimimaro is ruthless and prone to gross overkill for minor reasons.  
  
I know some might be bothered by it, so might as well warn y'all now. While I won't have many if any other orgy scenes like the one of the last two chapters -those seemed to bother people a lot... well, I did overmentioned it-, there will be various displays of violence and mentions -and maybe scenes- of torture through the story, One Piece has comedic tones, but it's set in a brutal world. And I like that contrast.  
  
 **4 -** "Sipping on the alcoholic juice and watching the almost casual conversations, he decided that this might not be heaven, but it was nice.*  
  
Just to give a random villager/ex-slave's perspective over the last 3 chapters. Probably not going to be a recurrent character.  
  
 **5 -** "...dead green eyes and a forced smile barely visible under all the facial hair.*"  
  
Just to point out that because of his fungal armor, which covers his whole body, including his eyes, the painted on fungal eyes seem like dead eyes to others. And in this case it was a clone, which is made of fungi and plants, so its painted eyes also look dead to others.


	13. Interludes

**Just three separate slices of life/interludes while the MC is still at peak insanity and the freed-slaves at peak distrust/trauma, before a short time skip.**

* * *

**I - When Baccarat gave up on teaching Senju civility:**

**A week or so after chapter 12.**  
  
In front of the door of one of the three cube homes that rested on a compound far from the village, Baccarat rubbed her forehead.  
  
She is a swindler, a con-artist and a thief, she isn't supposed to play administrator or peacemaker damn it!  
  
Unfortunately, considering that most of the other slaves had been captured long before she was and were in far worse psychological condition, and that most of the other most recent ones were either shell-shocked, insane or kids, that had ended up as her job.  
  
She had taken a couple of the most seemingly stable freed slaves to help her with the administrative and diplomatic work of settling down a bunch of traumatized refugees.  
  
Putting an always smiling old-man named Kotatsu as the head of the administrative paperwork on the simple logic that no way she was doing paperwork, so she needed someone to throw work on, and someone old should know more stuff.  
  
The said oldman, had proved to be a god send, being a rather capable administrator. One that could've and should've been great, if not for the fact he did absolutely nothing without orders.  
  
She had discovered that on the third day, when she didn't show up at their self-designated office for the day and found the old man sitting on his usual spot on the next, after he had stayed up there all night staring at the wall waiting for her.  
  
At least it was clean, as he could use the bathroom without orders… after having expressly asked for permission to her to do so on the first day of them working together.  
  
The calm smile that he had while he explained a situation that would've angered most was what truly creeped her out. She had kept him busy with various tasks since then, and with predetermined times and things to do to relax after. He would work himself to exhaustion if there weren't.  
  
She didn't feel bad for him. She didn't. Really. She swears it.  
  
With a sigh, Baccarat clapped both hands against her face and decided to stop stalling.  
  
As forcibly appointed administrator and with control over the plant-soldiers, Baccarat had ended up as both a familiar and respected person in the village.  
  
And she hated it, being respected just meant that people went for you with their problems, especially when their problems involved the mad-man that was their savior, as while they had relaxed somewhat, most were still scared to approach him.  
  
So, after being related his latest blunder, people expected her to confront him.  
  
Well, most just wanted her to say any platitude to calm them down.  
  
A few were more outgoing and showed less signs of their trauma, but the majority of the freed-slaves were lost and frightened. Used to a life without control, whenever a strong wind blew or the morning fruits took a bit longer to form, they searched for someone to tell them things were going to be okay.  
  
That trauma and search for stability didn't do much to convince her -' _it's not my problem, damn it!'-_ but she personally agreed with the current complainer. It was unfortunate, it would've been much easier to ignore it if she didn't.  
  
Taking a deep breath and preparing herself, Baccarat loudly and quickly opened the door with an accusation half-way through her mouth. She had quickly learned that she needed to keep the momentum in any conversation with him, lest he go off on a random and strange tangent.  
  
"You can't just solicit an ex slave!" A red-faced Baccarat -both from anger and embarrassment- yelled at a frowning tree-man for his newest transgression against common sense and property.  
  
"Why not? She was pretty, I was curious. And it was just a question, I left her alone after she panicked." Answered the frowning treeman, frowning not from the demanding redhead or what said redhead was talking about, but from concentration as he focused on what was laid open in front of him. "She was even at the orgy."  
  
Baccarat froze, her answer of 'how the drug-fueled orgy was not healthy to anyone that participated, especially not to the female ex-slaves of the Celestial Cunt' died on her lips as she took in the scene before her.  
  
The inhumanly tall man was currently seated hunched over two bodies. One of a human, a browned haired, nondescript man wearing only Marine issued pants and the other group of thousands of dark green vines shaped into a human-like body.  
  
Said vine-"person" was one of the human-like plant lifeforms that he had created during the last four years and the one that currently made up all of the new village's police-force. Since there had been no crimes besides one or two minor fights, they mostly helped the freed-slaves with menial labor, like hanging clothes to dry and such.  
  
Though Baccarat couldn't be sure of its origins, the corpse was likely from one of one of the Marines that had died in the ships' capture, with the mad scientist attempting to figure out the difference between the two constructs and how to best breach them.  
  
Seeing the blood-covered form of the hair and vegetation covered madman, Baccarat froze and fought against her instinct to bail for the door, run and not look back.  
  
Meanwhile, after responding Senju had gone straight back to paying attention to the bodies.  
  
He hadn't intended to kill any of the Marines besides Onigumo, but since he had done so, he might as well put their remains to use.  
  
Besides the one he was currently studying, there were other corpses used for various experiments these last few days, some 22 Marines had been killed in their fights against my vines. Senju would rather not be happy that people were murdered, but those dead Marines had been a treasure trove of information.  
  
He had made more strides on how to create more sentient lifeforms and how to replicate animal and human-like functions with plants this last week than he had in the last year. The differences between a human and threerilla's brain were astounding.  
  
Senju hadn't succeeded yet on making plants with human-like intellect, but he had managed to make parasitic -that grew within the island's animals- or carrion life forms -that grew over the corpses of the Marines- with an intelligence comparable to a threerilla's.  
  
Right now he was simply making another check of the human nerve system to try and figure out the best way to apply something similar to his creations, maybe even how to augment his own.  
  
Various hair-thin vines ran through the open-air guts of the dead Marine while his other hand grasped one of the vines that made up the vine-man, connected to both as he was he furthered his insight into-  
  
"...yet you keep doing things like this, why can't you- Are you even listening to me?!" The red haired roared into his ear, the loud noise distracting him and causing him to tense the various vine-tentacles, which gripped the nerves with too much strength, causing the body to flop like a fish out of water for a second before going back to inercy, the nerves destroyed.  
  
The cast-away child of Hashirama and Orochimaru growled at the wasted test subject. "No, I wasn't. I was in the middle of something." He answered through gritted teeth.  
  
Knowing the difference in strength between the two of them, Baccarat normally wouldn't dare speak so boldly.  
  
She wasn't a meek or fearful person by nature, but she would consider herself to be smart enough not to annoy people that could kill her. Not too much at least.  
  
But she was also smart enough to notice that the man, however deranged he may be, hasn't replied with force to any insult so far -at best knocking out a particularly raving mad freed slave-, and she was brazen enough to take advantage of it.  
  
So taking a deep breath and with both as much surety of her safety as one could have in an isolated island with a mad man and the knowledge that if he was murderous there was not much she could do against it either way, she continued to speak unfiltered by fear.  
  
"Oh ho, I realized that." She said calm growing scarcer by the minute. "I realized that, as I came to speak to you about your harassing of rape victims, you were in the middle of HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION! Can you try to not be insane or an ass for more than five fucking minutes?"  
  
Knowing that this test subject was now useless for his intended purpose and that Baccarat won't leave him alone to get anything done if he doesn't reply, the thin tentacles retreated to Senju's fingertips and he turned around to face the redhead.  
  
"I'm trying." He answered through gritted teeth. "Despite me not owing y'all anything, despite me saving y'all asses, despite me being able to kill y'all with a thought, am I still fucking trying to be accomodating." He said, towering over the redhead, who suddenly grew quiet under the shadow of 14 feet of man-eating plants and insanity. "I was curious, I asked her a question, she panicked, I went away. The hell ya complaining about?"  
  
Baccarat, opened her mouth to explain why a 14 feet unstable man soliciting a recently freed sex-slave would be wrong and severely uncomfortable regardless of a lack of insistence by him, then she looked at the mass of hair and writhing tentacles glaring at her and decided to remain quiet.  
  
The silence stretched for a while longer, seeing no answer forthcoming, the forestman turned back around to tinker with a new Marine corpse that rose from the ground, carried to him by the sea of underground roots.  
  
Baccarat remained frozen for a second, split between standing up for her complaint or bailing out, then the wet and crunchy sounds of him opening the corpse's rib-cage with his bare hands removed any doubts for her, and she ran back towards the village without looking back.  
  
"Ah, I really don't get people, give them free food and houses and they still complain to me." He said to the nothingness as the hair-thin vines once again grew from his fingertips. "Ya have any clue what that was about?" He asked the corpse beneath him, who shook its head as he poked at the right nerve…  
  
"Hm." then he hummed to himself as he stopped to actually look at what he was doing, elbow deep in an unknown young man's innards.  
  
With his lack of human contact and his overly violent home-island, Senju did not understand what people generally expected from him, and the fact that they seemed to expect him to know it without explicitly saying anything annoyed him greatly.  
  
When he did get what he was supposed to do, the majority of those things bored him, so he didn't do them as well.  
  
Threerillas were far more direct and simple about things, the solution to almost every issue was a well placed punch.  
  
Still, despite his only memories of civilization and human interaction being from strange 2D series, he knew that human experimentation was always shown in bad light, most of the characters that did them in the strange series he called memories were ones that even he disliked.  
  
So, after Baccarat had left and with his arms still firmly grasping the unknown Marine's trachea from the inside, Senju decided that he probably did need to tone down a bit on his habits, make a greater effort to socialize and be more normal and all that, he did want to meet more people after all.  
  
…  
  
' _As soon as I figure out how to make a brain.'_ He thought to himself as he focused back on the corpse.  
 ****

* * *

**Saw a few complaining about him not caring or not acting serious or wanting him to get over his madness. Well, he will. Eventually.  
  
He won't just wake up normal. He is a guy raised by hyper aggressive gorillas and uncaring plants, gorillas and plants which he has both killed, experimented on (the corpses… mostly) and eaten (yes he could feel every fruit he ate, it was strange). It doesn't set a good precedent or mindset for social interactions, he needs time to tone it down, with a small timeskip next chapter helping a little.  
  
Either way, he will grow from a more eldritch Inosuke (Demon Slayers) to a more Hashirama or Warrod (Fairy Tail) type of character through time. Though he will always like fights.**

* * *

**II - The little white shadow:**

** A week or so after chapter 12. **

Senju's closed eyes twitched as laid in the grass that made up his bed, the presence in the corner of the room somehow both quiet and loud at the same time.

Likely because while its Voice was quiet, Senju was used to living with homicidal birds and gorillas who he would never let into the house while he slept, so any presence close-by when he was trying to sleep felt dangerous. That he could feel the presence's constant stare also didn't help.

"Ya know, I made pretty clear that this wasn't needed." Senju said to the room without getting up.

"I apologize, master. But that is one order that I must insist against." The familiar cold voice replied from the corner as Kimimaro, my tiny shadow, sat with his legs folded beneath him. "One is at his most vulnerable while sleeping, I shall remain vigil." He said with a nod.

Senju put his hand over his face and groaned into it.

"And I already told you that my plants will take care of that!" He said somewhat loudly, before sitting up in bed and properly yelling at the brat. "And to stop calling me master! Sen-Ju, it's not a difficult name!"

There was a moment of silence as Senju waited for a response and Kimimaro thought on what to do, Voice cold and quiet as ever, revealing nothing to the plant-man.

"If I've failed you in any way please dispense the appropriate punishment." The prepubescent kid said, going from kneeling position to full on dogeza in expectation of his punishment.

"Hurgh." Senju only groaned in response and fell back on his bed. "Don't ya need to sleep?" He asked the far to serious brat.

"I sleep during the periods that you submerge yourself into your plants." He answered with the same monotone.

Senju once again put his hand over his face and rubbed his temple. He did not submerge himself daily these last few days, hell, not even every two days. Just how little had the brat slept?

"Go to sleep." He groaned again, a bed growing between the two, close to the corner Kimimaro was kneeling in.

"I must remain awake and vigil." The kid replied simply, shaking his head.

"Ya need to sleep, that's an order." Senju groaned from his bed. He generally avoided giving the kid orders in the hope that the brat would stop believing he needed them. But they were useful when needed, Kimimaro never refused them.

The kid hesitated for a second, before slowly climbing into the bed in front of him and laying down.

…

…

"I can _hear_ your stare…" The low groan cut through the silence of the late night.

"I apologize again, master." Was the monotone reply. "But I cannot sleep knowing you would be defenseless."

"Senju! Sen-ju! If ya can't relax on order, ya can at least say my damn name!" The loud roar woke the nearby threerilla troops and murder-toucans flights.

…

"I apologize to have failed you again." He said as he once again went into dogeza position above the bed, offering the back of his neck.

He did not need to vocalize his offer of his life as recompense, for he had already given it to the man. Now it would be taken for his failures, even if he doesn't really understand what the failures were.

"Hah." Quietly sounded out a groan of frustration. "Just call me by my name, close your eyes and go to sleep."

Nodding seriously, Kimimaro did as ordered, closing his eyes and turning his face upwards in a perfect sleeping position.

But much like when he had tried it before, sleep would likely elude him, tense as he was as the only one awake in the roo-

His thought process was stopped by a hand the size of his torso gripping his head. The kid instinctively formed bone blades on his forearms, but stopped before cutting off the appendage holding him when he saw that his master was its owner, instead blinking at the glaring green eyes above him.

"And I can Hear your tension now, sleeeeeep." The man ordered while making a light but noticeable pressure on the kid's skull.

"If you are trying to knock me out, asphyxiation is a better option." Was the kid's monotone reply as the pressure continued.

"Aaaaaaaah." The kid's self-imposed master let out a sigh that sounded more like a scream of frustration. "What's the problem now?!" Senju asked, frustrated from the kid's inability to both leave him alone and sleep.

"I am attempting to follow your orders, but I simply cannot sleep knowing you're left defensele-" The hand over his cap moved to cover the albino's face, covering his mouth and cutting his answer short.

Senju took a deep breath, he was tired, he just wanted to sleep and all of this was giving him a headache.

"Hah~" He sighed before plopping into the bed besides the white-haired insomniac. "There, now even sleeping ya technically guarding at least one side of me." He said as the bed grew to accommodate his larger size, hopeful that this would be the end of it.

It, of course, wasn't. Senju soon felt a pressure above him and slightly opened one eye to see the kid splashed above his oversized torso, arms barely reaching the forest-man's shoulders while the feet rested a bit over his waist.

The kid's lifeless green eyes blinked at him, his own deeper green eyes blinked back.

"This way I offer more coverage." The kid replied to the unasked question. "In case of any attack." He added when Senju continued to stare at him.

With another deep sigh, the larger man just patted the kids head, mumbled a go to sleep and closed his eyes.

Kimimaro stared for a little longer before once more trying to comply with the order to go to sleep, after a few more moments of tense readiness against sneak attacks that never came, he eventually passed out without his notice.

Hours later, he woke up once again nested into the left side of the strange man he had sworn allegiance to, instead of splashed above said treeman's uncomfortable rib cage as he had been when he slept.

Kimimaro thought it odd, considering that he had long mastered not moving, even while sleeping. But the grass mattress felt incredibly soft beneath him and he felt more human heat nested between his liege's left arm and person-sized torso than he had in his entire life.

' _It feels nice.'_ with that thought, Kimimaro snuggled a bit further in and slept until late for the first time in his life.

* * *

**First just to confirm that there** **won't** **be any yaoi in the story. Still not sure about any pairing, but I can guarantee it definitely won't be yaoi. Probably not Hancock too, but that's a whole other thing.**

**Just wanted to put some… well, wouldn't call fluff, but a more caring interaction after all the insanity and conflict of the last chapters. And it helps groom that loyalty with the most dedicated subordinate.**

… ****it's mostly because I had given Naruto's young-Kimimaro's scenes a look to write the last chapter, damn does that kid need a hug. The MC is unfortunately still too unstable to realistically help people emotionally, but I needed to put something in here.****

* * *

**III - Fishing for fights:**

**A week or so after chapter 12**

Stalking through the dense underwood of the strange and lethal island that he found himself on the blue skinned swordsman called Kisame kept an attentive ear and Observation to his surroundings and a tense hand on his sword/friend's handle.

His tension paid off, as minutes into his walk he felt a presence behind him, reflexively turning with a swing of Samehada, its Armament covered spikes dug into a wooden wall that rose from ground between his sword and the man/creature that had saved the swordsman.

The wooden wall folded to grasp the sword in its hands, bending under the large living sword, but not breaking. Many of the spikes managed to pierce through the arm, but none reached the source of it, branches growing from the wall and snaring each spike individually.

"So, we doing this again?" The plant-covered man asked with a raised brow at the shark fishman baring his teeth at him.

The fishman ripped Samehada off the wall and rested it on his shoulder. "No, just don't sneak up on me." Kisame answered with a forced grin, even as he directed an analytical stare at the interloper.

The man that the normally not serious fishman was taking so seriously just snorted back at Kisame's cautious face. "Did I spook ya?"

Kisame blinked at the man who had supposedly defeated two Vice-Admirals at the same time, followed by a small fleet of Marines. "Are you ten?" Said fleet-killer just snorted again.

"Technically four if you're counting living memory." The man waved off the insult before throwing one of his own. "So, how is it being saved and beaten by a four year old? I'm afraid I ain't old or weak enough to know the feeling."

Despite the juvenile nature of the insult, Kisame was never the most composed person. The fact there was some truth to it didn't help. His grip on Samehada's handle tightened, but he did not attack for a change.

"Tch." He sounded out instead. "It's none of your business what I'm doing, go bother one of your insane followers." Kisame glared at his savior and headache.

"... huh, I thought you were looking for me, but since that is not the case, you're searching for the Marines ain't ya?" The forest-man asked as he leaned towards the fishman.

From how said fishman's grip tightened even further and his eyes narrowed, he had hit the nail on the head.

He had simply guessed it out of the knowledge that the fishman hadn't seemed to be focused on him and that as far as Senju knew the sword/clubman didn't have beef with anyone else on the Island besides the Marines.

"Yeah, are you stopping me?"

"That depends, whatcha planning on doing with them?"

The fishman just stared deadpan at him.

"Ah, then yeah, probably." Senju replied, actually getting the meaning behind the human (fishman?) expression for once.

Literally for once, as with less than a week of human contact, this was the first time that he managed to understand an unspoken human (sharkman?) cue. Yay for progress.

Kisame just kept Samehada at the ready.

Senju stared at the fishman in a fighting stance and sighed. "Didn't ya just say we wouldn't be doing this?" He asked the fishman with a raised brow. "Again." He added in a deadpan.

The fishman just tightened his stance. "I didn't intend to. But if you stand in my way, there is no other solution is there?" Kisame asked back.

The forest-man had gone after Kisame mostly to convince to have another spar, as he had been fun to fight against, so this was exactly what he was here for.

Still, Senju had hoped that, considering his last defeats, the fish would've learned to not throw hands for whatever minor reasons. Maybe instead try to talk it out, be reasonable.

Something hurt in his chest. It was probably his hypocrisy getting too much for him to handle.

Okay, maybe that was a little hypocritical. But Senju had bothered to actually think of reasonable points for why they should spar! Let him use those points and train his social skills damn it!

"Can't ya like… just fight it out with them? Beat them up a little?" The walking forest tried again.

He kinda hoped for a more friendly spar rather than a deathmatch, he already had the Cipher Pol agents for those.

"Hah! Beating them up? And then what?! Leave them alone because they've learned their lesson?!" The fishman roared, fighting stance broken by sheer indignation at how Senju was minimizing his issue. "You don't know the hell in disguise that is Mary Geoise, or the scale of the atrocities committed by the Marine dogs that keep that den of sin afloat!" The swordsman roared at the tree-man.

He refused to consider any Marine, Noble or Government worker innocent. Every and any of them were guilty by association.

As a member of the Sun Pirates, and one who joined after being saved by Fisher Tiger's attack, he knew first hand of the sins of the World Government.

The forest-man had saved him and killed some Marines, which put him in a better light than most humans in the fishman's eyes. But Kisame could never trust the man, his eyes were dead and he was too volatile to be trustworthy.

Kisame felt something hurt in his chest. It was probably his hypocrisy getting too much for him to handle.

Still, savior or not, good or bad, sane or crazy, Kisame wouldn't allow anyone to stand in the way of his one man crusade.

He knew that he likely couldn't kill every Government employee, but he sure could die trying.

Meanwhile, Senju scratched at his beard.

Well, he did have some idea of the Government's sins with all the information that One Piece gave him, but he also knew that it was incomplete info and that either way it wouldn't mean much compared to one who lived it first-hand.

"Eh, then sorry but Imma have to stop you from getting to them." He answered with a shrug. He couldn't think of a way to pacify the fishman, but he wouldn't just let him murder the captured Marines in order to calm down. "I'm still thinking of what to do with them, ya know?"

"Killing them would be my suggestion." The fishman pointed out the obvious through gritted teeth, tensed in preparation for the coming fight.

…

The two stared at each other for a while, Kisame tense and with his sword poised, Senju relaxed and with his hands on his hips.

The fishman studying his opponent for openings (which there were many) and weaknesses while the forest-man tried to think of how to pacify freed-slaves with a lot of justifiable hatred. Besides beating them up, that was the backup solution, good ol violence.

Then Kisame exploded into motion, rushing forward towards the thinking Palmtree.

Said thinking tree, instead of gassing the place or using one of the various pre-made, mountain-sized, steel-strong branches that surrounded them, covered his arms in bark-armor and Armament and rushed to meet the swordsfishman in the middle.

Might as well get some fun out of this.

Senju's longer range meant that he launched his attack first, a left armored fist flying towards the fishman's head.

The fist was swatted out of its path with an upwards swing of Samehada, Kisame followed the swing's motion, twisting his whole body to spin himself inside the taller fighter's guard, in position to land an elbow to his ribs, or a sword strike, if Senju tried to gain distance.

Instead of gaining distance, the forest-man used his free, also armored, right hand to block the attacking elbow and stop the fishman from completing his turn to bring Samehada back down on the forest-man's head.

Unfortunately, Senju wasn't used to fighting fishman karate, and so wasn't ready for the air-wave that hit his stomach despite the block, causing him to release the swordsman's elbow, who completed his turn and brought Samehada down on the forest-man, Senju quickly sinking into the ground to avoid the hit.

The shark-skin sword hit the ground, breaking the dirt covering and some of the writhing roots that hid beneath, but no half-mad forest-man came out.

Kisame stood in the middle of the forest, tense and ready as he tried to use his super-human instincts and subpar Observation to find his foe.

That readiness was the only reason that he was able to turn to block the punch that came from behind him when Senju burst from the ground.

The punch sent him skidding back a little, but Senju didn't allow him to get too far, following the fishman with a low kick to the shin, which the fishman jumped over and counter it with a mid-air spin slash with Samehada.

Senju ducked under the shredding blade and before the fishman could finish turning or landing, he reached with a hand grasping towards the swordsman's head.

Kisame was barely able to lean back while still mid-air to avoid the torso sized hand that almost grabbed his head, falling awkwardly after his aerial slash and dodge.

But as awkwardly as he had fallen, the moment that he planted his feet on ground, he pushed himself forward, using his smaller size to once more get under his opponent's guard, still open after his over-extended grabbing attempt.

And though the space was too small to use Samehada, he was able to land a proper palm-strike into the forest-man's torso, cracking the fungi armor covering it -and some ribs behind it- and sending him flying at one of the surrounding trees.

There was enough strength in the strike to send him flying through at least three of the clearing's large trees, but the forest-man sunk into the first one he hit as if it was water.

"Huh." A voice came from behind Kisame a moment later, making him quickly turn around to see the forest-man coming out of a tree at the other side of the clearing, holding onto his stomach but looking uninjured. "I guess I lose in a fist-fight even with my armor on." The man said, loudly but seemingly for himself.

Then he smiled far too widely and started laughing. Loudly.

It had been too long since he has been competing with Bob unarmored. They were almost matched then, but that was without using any of his powers.

But being defeated while using his armor and ability to merge with the surroundings? Senju's heart was beating almost as loudly as when he had fought the Vice-Admirals or when he had started fighting Bob.

Then his loud laugh irritated his newly cracked ribs and he started coughing and groaning in pain with each cough as they rattled said ribs even more.

Kisame stared at his unstable saviour, now coughing uncontrollably after an unhinged laughter, and lowered Samehada just a smidge.

"It's for things like this that I just can't trust you." He said with a sigh to the laughing mad-man.

"What?" The man asked as he stopped laughing/coughing to look at the fishman. "For having fun or for coughing?"

"No, for being unable to take any of this seriously!" He roared at the forest-man.

He was on a one man suicidal crusade for revenge against the World Government, he had neither the time or the patience for mad-plant-men!

Said mad-plant-man stared at him for a moment before scratching at his brow and heaving a heavy sigh.

"Hah~ Ya want me to take this seriously? Fine."

Before the fishman could reply that yes, he wanted his knowingly suicidal mission and various valid critics about the Government to be taken seriously, he heard a *puff* all around and suddenly his vision was covered in purple.

Kisame reacted instantly, a slash of Samehada and an application of Fishman Karate's air manipulation techniques into swordsmanship easily clearing the air around him of toxins, but his vision was already swirling from the single breath he had taken inside the poisonous cloud.

He took a step forward to try to attack the talking palmtree again, but all of his muscles burned and refused to move properly, so he simply fell face first into the ground.

The purple cloud subsided the moment its target was taken down.

Hearing a flop besides him, the fishman was barely able to turn his aching head towards the sound and glare at the brown haired man now seated cross-legged by his fallen form.

"Not that fun when I take things seriously, huh?" Senju asked the fishman with a far too smug tone of voice.

Kisame would've answered. But somehow furnaces had taken the place of his lungs, he hoped that his seizuring in the ground somehow seemed hateful enough to convey his anger.

"If I was the serious type I would've even killed ya now." The seizures became a bit more intense as Kisame tried even harder to fucking move! at that remark. "Ya know, cause of the whole refusing to listen and fighting to kill me two times now." Senju said casually even as Kisame started frothing at the mouth. "Ain't ya happy that I don't care enough about it now?"

… Kisame just gurgled as his vision started to darken from the lack of oxygen.

"Hm, it seems to get ya worse than the threerillas." The only response was the rattling of the grass as the fishman continued to flop around like a fish out of water. "Here." Senju said vaguely, before a cloud of green pores was released from the surrounding vegetation, covering the clearing in gas once again.

…

After a few seconds the seizures slowed down and Kisame managed to breathe again, they eventually stopped altogether with the fishman lying face first on the floor.

"Fuck you." Were the fishman's first words as the seizures subsided.

The burning and locked muscles replaced by ice cold and unresponsive ones, he was not sure if it was an improvement.

Well, he had managed to force out the words and -despite feeling as if they had burnt their way out of his trachea- that he could move his mouth and said trachea enough to form an answer was an improvement.

"No thanks, still trying to get a woman to guarantee which team I am on." Was the far too casual answer. "Unsurprisingly hard to find a willing one amongst traumatized ex-slaves coming out of a fruit induced high into a really dark low."

"Hurgh." Kisame groaned back uninterested.

"I mean, there were two from that new cult about me that sprung up. But boy they were creeeeepy."

"Hurgh." Kisame made sure to make an especially uninterested groan to see if the mad-man would stop talking with him.

…

And it seemed that it worked.

The blessed silence stretched, and the fishman allowed himself to relax as the green cloud slowly removed the feeling in his burning muscles. He wasn't sure if he was dying or being healed, but at least it was quie-

"I can guarantee that I ain't into you though… Nor into gorillas, panthers, toads, insects or birds." Of course it couldn't last, Kisame's luck wouldn't allow it.

"Hugh" Was the groan of both pain, from the blood that burned and froze in his veins from the poison, and disgust, over the image. "I did NOT need to know that." Kisame said as loudly as his collapsing lungs allowed.

His only answer was more cough filled laughter.

The green cloud continued to cover both of them as the conversation went on, Kisame feeling less and less of his extremities, only really registering an exhaustion as his body tired itself out fighting the poison. Not feeling most of his body, the fishman terrorist closed his eyes.

_"It seems that I'll be seeing you soon, Tiger-san. Though I'm probably not going to the same place as you, I hope I can talk to you one last time."_ Were the ex-terrorist's resigned thoughts as he got ready for death by poisoning.

…

…

After a few moments of still feeling exhaustion and some remaining pain -which meant he was alive-, the fishman opened his eyes to stare at the brown-haired human smiling back at him.

"So, I ain't dying?" He asked uneasily.

The damn human was looking expectantly at him, and Kisame was not sure if he was waiting for him to say something or if the gas would make him explode in a minute and the mad-man was just waiting for it to take effect.

"Pft, of course not. Why would I go to trouble of saving y'all and not murdering you the first time ya attacked me just to kill ya now? This is just an antidote and an anesthetic, are you an idiot?"

Kisame did not know what annoyed him the most, the question or the look of pity on Senju's face as if he genuinely thought the fishman to be 'special'.

"Maybe if you didn't look like a drug-addicted hobo and talked like an insane castaway I could actually understand what you mean!" The swordsman roared back as the strength returned to his lungs.

"Oi, I'll have you know I'm rocking this beard… and I kinda am an insane castaway though." Was the casual answer, it was not like Senju wasn't aware that the isolation and lack of memories probably made him… 'different'.

He was offended about the hobo thing though, he probably should actually brush his hair now that there were people around, but the beard made him look wise, not insane damn it!

"Wise my ass, you look like a raving mad-man, not a sage." Was the fishman's answer, letting Senju know that he said at least part of what he was thinking out loud.

He also needed to work on that now that there were people around.

"Yes, you do."

"Oi!" Was the exclamation of annoyance followed by a light slap to the downed fishman's head.

Kisame would've fought back, if his arms weren't completely unresponsive right now.

Technically he could still move his left hand's little finger, but even as both confident and lowkey suicidal as he was, he wasn't about to fight the fleet-killer with just his head and little left finger.

Senju meanwhile was still meandering over why having a bushy beard didn't make him look wise. All of his memories -made up of anime or uncaring plants and gorillas- said that it should've worked, so what the hell?!

…

A somewhat awkward silence settled in, as Senju was both immersed in his thoughts and had no idea how to talk with people and Kisame was just tired and closed his eyes as the exhaustion from being poisoned settled in again.

"So, ya cooled down now or do ya still want to throw down?"

"Hurgh. Too tired now, I'll just kill those Marines later." He replied with his eyes still closed.

"Or never."

"Huuuurgh, I'll beat you up later too."

"Uff, that one is a definite never."

Kisame just took a deep breath, and didn't bother replying.

….

The silence stretched again between the two antisocial battle nuts, before the fishman broke it for a change.

"Why the hell do you care about what I do with the Marines either way?" He asked instead, both to change the conversation away from him and to see if he can't solve his issues diplomatically for a change.

His issue being that his murder spree was being stopped… it felt a little hypocritical to solve anything related to that in a non-violent way, maybe he should just rest and try violence again tomorrow.

"Hm? Ah, I wanna to see if I can trade them for a Devil-Fruit. And killing them while they're unarmed, caged and defeated feels kinda cheap." Senju answered with a shrug, while Kisame used the limited control he currently had over his muscles to frown as hard as he could.

"You're stopping me from killing the people that guarded my cells on the way to a live of torture and slavery at Mary Geoise because 'killing unarmed people feels cheap'?" The fishman managed to force out through gritted teeth.

"Oi, don't try to make me sound like the unreasonable one for stopping ya from killing people."

"They deserve to die!"

Senju just sighed.

"... Kinda, yeah." He admitted after being unable to find a counterpoint that could calm a recently freed slave, or an at any time freed-slave. "Still not letting ya kill them though. They could be useful to me and at least their leader isn't that bad a person, and I ain't going through the trouble of judging each one of them and passing adequate, individual sentences."

"You're letting the slavers live because you're too lazy to pass sentences?!"

"Well, you're the same. Only I want to pardon everyone and you want to murder everyone, just two sides of extremism really."

…

"Fuck you."

"We just went over this. I knew goldfish forgot stuff pretty quickly, is that a shark thing too?"

"Hurgh. You're fucking exhausting."

"Hello kettle, my name is pot."

"Huuuuurgh."

Senju chuckled at the frustrated groan.

"Bah, relax. I doubt the Marines will give me a pardon after the whole dead Dragon thingy, so I'll probably run over a Marine base with the Island soon enough." He said patting the downed and immobile fishman's head. Who glared at him for the condescending act.

…

"I'll hold you to that." The fishman finally answered after a moment of silence, before letting out a tired breath.

Finally they agreed on something! Senju could already see how this would be the start of their life-long friendship.

…

The silence stretched once again as the fishman was too tired to talk and Senju was now paying attention to the wooden carapace he was constantly and slowly growing around the underwater outside part of the Island, before the fishman broke it again after resting his eyes for a minute.

"I'm still killing those Marines and beating you up after I wake up." The fishman interrupted Senju's positive thoughts with some final words before the exhaustion caused by the anesthetics and his body fighting the poison earlier made him pass out.

Truly, the beginning of a life-long friendship… Senju was just not sure whose life it would be yet.

* * *

**… No idea what to do with Kisame to be honest. I thought of him as a character for far ahead scenes, Shichibukai-MC with years of rehabilitation into society ahead scenes. And he doesn't mesh too well with the current -Tarzan fresh out the jungle- MC.**

**Either way, he will always be somewhat standoffish and overly both violent and stubborn. But he will tone down a little on the standoffishness, especially with Senju. Over time... which will probably be 300k words in at the slow-ass pace I'm going.** ****


	14. Chapter 14

**Probably going back to a first person view by next chapter. It's easier to write in, warn me if I ended up talking about the MC in the first person somewhere, I was thinking about changing it this chapter and it might've slipped in sometimes.  
  
And just to say that there are now some interludes? Slices of life? Some scenes that I wrote but didn't really go anywhere threadmarked as side-stories.**   
****

* * *

***Three weeks later, the Island, somewhere in the West Blue. 8 years before canon starts.***  
  
"So goooooood~" A deep voice cried out in a creepy tone of pleasure as its even creepier owner was sent flying through the trunks of two thick, rock solid trees, bounced off the ground once and finally stopped after crashing against an even larger tree behind the destroyed first two.  
  
The voice's owner was an upper-heavy blond man known as Dice, who fell off the large trunk he was indented into to ground, a last disturbing moan leaving him before his consciousness did.  
  
"Huh, hah…" The opponent of the unconscious blonde panted out.  
  
The three-armed gorilla, even larger than the already abnormally tall blonde, stood in the middle of the clearing as he tried to calm its breathing with various deep breaths.  
  
Despite today's victory, Bob still couldn't shake the feeling that the strange masochist might actually be stronger than himself.  
  
No, that wasn't right. Despite the victory, Bob knew that his opponent was stronger than himself.  
  
Though they were close in strength, the main reason that the threerilla could win most of their fights was his opponent's tendency to let himself be hit for the pain of it.  
  
This new opponent and the knowledge of his own weakness lit a fire under the primate that Bob hadn't felt in a while.  
  
Much like Senju, Bob's whole life had been spent within the Island, a place where the tree-man was both the strongest person, what the threerilla had grown to think of as an unsurpassable goal -with the havoc that he could and did cause- and a priceless resource -with all the fruits that he supplied-.  
  
Bob was already an old ape when he met the fruit-man, yet he had never eaten better.  
  
So, as he grew with the constant fights against the lanky man and their subsequent steroid-fruits, Bob had come to be stronger than most of his kind. And after defeating all of the larger threerilla troops in the island to prove his power both to them and himself, Bob grew content with his strength, stagnant.  
  
Satisfied with second place, after the lanky man that created him infinite fruits.  
  
Then his world was turned upside down when the familiar lanky man showed up with another four unfamiliar furless gorillas that the threerilla king's instincts told him might be as strong as himself.  
  
After meeting first Baccarat in a fear filled encounter -for the red-haired- and then the rest of the freed-slaves when Senju had literally dragged him to see the newly made village, Bob had spent almost all of the last three weeks training and fighting either the masochist or the fishman.  
  
He had tried to fight Baccarat, but she bugged Senju into stopping the threerilla, and he had tried to fight Kimimaro, but Senju stopped that before it could begin.  
  
The kid was helpful, so the tree-man liked to keep him around... and as much as he believed in his friend, the teenage ninja soldier seemed to be both more deadly and more inclined to murder than Bob. And Bob was neither a slouch or a pacifist.  
  
He had also tried to fight Honey, but the girl was surprisingly fast when turned into jelly, and after Senju stopped laughing inappropriately at the mass of jelly running away screaming from the angry, giant three armed gorilla, he stopped Bob before the threerilla could test his developing Armament on the infant logia.  
  
Senju had tried to comfort the kid after it, but apparently he wasn't very good at it, as the blond hadn't left the village since, and only left her cube in the presence of either Baccarat or, for some reason, Kisame.  
  
Probably because the fishman was the only one that had stood up to Senju so far. He had failed, but still, it was something.  
  
The fishman didn't appreciate the brat following him around, but for all that he disliked the kid and humans in general, he still wouldn't hit the scared kid… too hard, he did hit her once or twice when she started talking too much, but not too hard and she kept following him out of her own will.  
  
All that Bob knew and cared about that relationship was that when he managed to ambush the fishman, if Kisame was with Honey, the ape couldn't attack the little blonde or else the plants would stop him.  
  
Considering Baccarat's, Kimimaro's and Honey's protection as a win, in his mind Bob went from the second strongest being in the world -which in his mind consisted of just the Island-, to an unstable third.  
  
He did not know or was able to understand that the spar with Kimimaro was stopped mostly for the ape's sake. Or that with Baccarat's powers she had a fair chance against anyone if she had time to prepare.  
  
He constantly lost in his spars against the fishman, with Senju having to heal the shredded skin on his friend multiple times, despite said friend's protest. Being helped was a sign of weakness after all.  
  
Spars with Dice were anyone's bet. The last had ended in Dice's victory, making the blonde the third strongest of the island and Bob the fourth, while today's ended in the threrilla's victory, making Bob once again the third. And on and on like this since they had met.  
  
Their strength and fighting style was similar enough, with the human having a slight edge strength, but one that was counterbalanced by Bob's extra appendage and Dice's idiotic tendency of letting himself be hit.  
  
So, instead of second place to the familiar furless monkey -or living plant, Bob was never quite sure-, the ape was now either third or fourth place to a tank of a furless monkey and a walking fish, both who practically mocked him with their beatableness.  
  
He couldn't accept that.  
  
Having gathered his breath, the threerilla stood on its two legs and roared his newest victory to the world.  
  
After the shrill shriek that marked his reassurance as the third strongest of the Island finished echoing through the jungle, the old threerilla fell on his fours and started to limp his way back to his troop's territory.  
  
He would beat the fishman one day too and retake his spot as second strongest, he would make sure of it. But for now it was time to rest and "heal" with the various females that he had taken as mates.  
 ****

* * *

 **At the same type, at the Marines' prison cube.**  
  
"Hurgh..." an abnormally tall brown haired man groaned as he was forced to lean far too much back to avoid the haki covered blade aimed at his neck, all while bringing up a haki and armored covered hand to catch a shigan finger aimed at his left axillary artery.  
  
Grabbing hold of the hand behind the finger shaped bullet, Senju lifted the CP-0 operative that had tried rushing from his left off the ground and used him as a club against his swordswoman companion.  
  
Said swordswoman jumped back before being hit by her fellow operative, who was thrown to the side by the forest-man after his short act as an impromptu club.  
  
The forest-man used the short interruption of their attacks to throw himself towards the retreating swordswoman, who retreated further back even as the male agent managed to turn mid-air and once again launch himself at the tree-man the moment his feet touched the ground.  
  
The swordswoman dodged a quick sequence of two punches and a sweeping kick, then reacted the moment that she saw her approaching ally.  
  
Seeing the human missile coming from the right, instead of dodging again, the swordswoman parried the next punch, the armored hand being forced to slide to the side, scrapping harmlessly against the top of the line sword.  
  
With one of their opponent's hands busy, the swordswoman lowered her sword from the parry and thrust it in a piercing motion aimed towards the forest-man's eyes, even as the other agent approached, flying forward close to the ground with a low aimed shigan, likely to aiming to pierce Senju's femoral artery.  
  
The two once again attacked together flawlessly, both at difficult positions to defend at the same time -for normal people- and aimed at kill spots. As his heart pumped, Senju's grin widened.  
  
The forest-man responded with an armored kick towards the man, who barrel-rolled mid-air to barely dodge the punch while continuing to fly forward, and a sweep of his right arm towards the woman, who brought her sword to remove the offending arm.  
  
The operatives reaction was quick and the right course of action, it was still futile.  
  
The haki covered sword bit into the equally haki covered hardwood-armored arm, but it barely managed to cut through muscle skin before being stopped, the sword -now stuck in the armored arm- was then forced to the side with the sweeping arm, its owner following the blade to the side, dragged by the taller man's arm.  
  
And despite the male agent doing Peppy Hare proud in dodging the original kick, the world's greatest gardener had quick enough reflexes to push his whole leg upwards, kicking the flying operative further up and away.  
  
The raised leg was then turned as Senju brough the agent still hanging onto the sword stuck into his arm in front of him and kicked the operative in her abdomen, before stomping towards the ground, indenting the swordswoman into the hardwood floor.  
  
Before he could follow through with anything at the downed operative, he was forced to jump back as his Observation warned him of the rain of rankyaku blades that came from the airborne male operative.  
  
The male operative, the source of said blades, slowed his descent with soft geppos while keeping at eye on the enemy still smirking at him.  
  
Before either could react, a blur exploded from the cloud of dust raised by the rankyaku shower, the agent had been sure not to hit his comrade, so an unharmed swordswoman burst from the cloud towards her sword.  
  
Before she could reach it, Senju rushed towards the disarmed swordswoman, who managed to lean to the side to dodge a grabbing hand towards her face, but not the following back-hand, being sent flying.  
  
The male operative, who had launched himself at Senju the moment the forest-man's attention wasn't on him, was forced to twist to avoid the punch thrown towards him as Senju's Observation warned him of the attempted sneak attack. Forced to dodge mid-air and at high-speed, the agent fell to the ground in a mess of limbs, before readjusting himself in less than a second and trying to geppo away once again.  
  
Unfortunately, it was too late, as a hand as large as his torso grabbed hold of his leg and pulled him down before the agent could take off once again, who then hit the ground hard with his back, knocking the air out of him.  
  
There was half a second between his vision swimming into colours and his training kicking, where an use of basic Life Return forced away his concussion temporarily and-  
  
The agent's vision returned just in time to see an Armament covered fist, which he barely managed to twist his head to soften the blow of, though it still rattled his head once again.  
  
Dazed again, he wasn't able to avoid the coming left handed jab that hit his ribs like a truck and he didn't even see the right hand punch that sent him flying away into unconsciousness.  
  
Looking at the airborne form of one of his opponents, Senju was barely able to bring an armored and Armament covered arm to block the blade that would've cut his head in half, said blade still hitting with enough strength to cut through his protections and the skin underneath, stopping just short of hitting bone.  
  
If Senju wasn't on more different types of painkillers than one could count with all of their fingers, that would've probably hurt. It probably will tomorrow.  
  
Still, for now he only locked his muscles and grew his armor over the blade almost reaching his ulna, imprisoning the sword, once again.  
  
Twisting his arm, he forced the smaller woman to twist along it as she refused to let go of the blade, once again.  
  
Leaned to the side and with both hands on the stuck blade's handle the female agent was barely able to turn before a large fist met her left cheek and sent her to bounce off the ground once, before falling immobile on the ground. If not unconscious then on the way to being so.  
  
"Ah~" The brown haired man and last person standing of the quick confrontation sighed in contentment before he started some after-action stretches.  
  
Truly, there was no better way to start the day than a fight.  
  
Senju could beat them pretty easily if he used his DF powers, but the two were a challenging fight in purely physical combat, and the forest-man did love a challenging fight, it was so much better than talking.  
  
He held both hands above his head in a stretch, the cuts that he had suffered through the fight visibly healing as he did so, before shaking off the remaining tension in his muscles and grabbing the wooden bowl of water and the plant-made towel that were thrusted towards him.  
  
"Thanks." He expressed his gratitude towards the albino kid who held said bowl and towel. It wasn't needed, as Senju could've created both with a thought, but the thought behind it was appreciated.  
  
The kid only nodded seriously in response, leading Senju to ruffle the kid's white hair, mostly to see any movement in his face. Even if it was only a slight frown as Kimimaro re-adjusted his hair.  
  
Senju had learned to pay a lot of attention to body language, as it made up a large part of the communication of the animals that had kept him company these last four years.  
  
So it was very disturbing for him that the kid had the body language of a statue. The poneglyph was more expressive.  
  
The man finished the water brought to him by the far too emotionless kid, stretched once again, returned the towel and bowl to said kid and walked to stand in front of a large blond man seated in a meditative stance, then he leaned towards the Vice-Admiral.  
  
Kimimaro dutifully followed him, stopping stock still a few steps behind him.  
  
"They had me distracted for a moment there, if you had jumped in y'all might've had a chance." The forest-man told his guest with an expectant smile. Said guest only sighed.  
  
"You say that after almost every spar, yet we both know that your Observation would stop you from being caught off guard." The blond Vice-Admiral replied in a deadpan tone. "I would rather not risk the current arrangements on such an unsafe bet." He finished without opening his eyes from the meditative stance.  
  
"Bah, you're no fun." Senju replied while dropping to sit cross legged in front of the Marine, Kimimaro kept standing stock still slightly to his left, the large plantperson still standing a head taller than the kid, even hunched and seated as he was. A cube rose between the two seated men. "So, black or white?" He asked, pointing towards the by now familiar checkers board.  
  
"White." Comil answered, having been alternating between pieces in their almost daily games. Finally opening his eyes and leaving his meditative stance to sit cross-legged in front of the board.  
  
Staring at his opponent, the Vice-Admiral was greeted by a clean-shaven face with a disturbing smile, the unkept beard gone and the hair both straightened out and cleaned from vegetation.  
  
Compared to the first time he met the man, he almost looked sane. If not for the still vague eyes and the far too wide smile.  
  
The clothes remained the same, furry green pants seemingly made of blades of grass and a white shirt that occasionally rippled as if alive, with an eldritch coat of ever-shifting tentacle-like vines covering most of it.  
  
"Ho-ho, today's the day Comil, I'm feeling it." His opponent taunted with a far too excited grin for a common game of checkers. "Today's the day that your sequence of victories comes to an end, today you shall cry rivers of blood as you finally taste the bitte-" He stopped mid unnecessary taunting before what likely would've been his thirtieth consecutive loss.  
  
A quietness stretched as the treeman remained looking at apparently nothing. Which Comil had learned likely meant that he was paying proper attention to something over the island. The Vice-Admiral was just still not sure if it was through his Devil Fruit or Observation. Likely both.  
  
"Finally!" Senju roared suddenly, catching both the albino and the blonde off guard. "We'll have to do this some other time, let's go!" He said and turned around without any explanation, leaving towards the edge of the prison and quickly getting out of sight.  
  
The white-haired child-soldier quickly got over his mild surprise and once again followed behind.  
  
…  
  
The Vice-Admiral blinked once, stared at the untouched checkers board, blinked again, stared at the wall that remained open behind the strange pair of lunacy and nihilism, blinked once more and stared at the marines, who were glued to the walls on the other side of prison to avoid the fight that had been going on mere minutes ago.  
  
Then blinked again towards the door-shaped opening in the section of the prison's wall in front of him, the wall besides said door reshaping itself to write "Let's go!" with an arrow pointed towards the opening.  
  
"I... I'll be right back?" The Marine told his confuscared subordinates as he slowly moved to follow after plant-person and bone-boy.  
  
The man was… eccentric, but Comil had come to trust that he wasn't unnecessarily violent -despite seemingly enjoying the violence-, so he followed his captor into the unknown without resistance.  
  
Most of the Marines had already learned first hand both what lived on the forests beyond the walls of their prison and the fact that their strange captor seemed to always be watching, so none took the seemingly chance to escape that the opening on the wall provided.  
 ****

* * *

 **Some minutes later. At a cliff edge, Island's western coast.**  
  
Standing over a rocky cliff on a coast of the Island, overlooking the sea-covered horizon with Kimimaro's ever-quiet presence and Comil's confused one behind him, Senju sighed in satisfaction.  
  
All things considered, and despite their rocky start, the forest-man was happy with his circumstances.  
  
He was on the move, which at the pace he had been going at would've still taken at least another year if not for the Celestial Dragon encounter, he had many new sparring partners with varying fighting styles to pass the time with and most of his guests were over their fear of him by now. Things were looking good.  
  
Of course, some of the freed-slaves remained wary, the fishman foremost of them. And then there were those weirdos sprinkling leaves in their hair and calling themselves Followers of the Forest-God.  
  
But life was mostly good, and definitely more interesting than when it had been only him, Bob and the rest of the deathworld fauna and flora that occupied this small piece of the world.  
  
And no offense to Bob, but even if he didn't remember having them before, something in Senju missed actual conversations… all the new fighting styles also made things more fun, he wouldn't tell the primate, but their spars had been getting kind of boring.  
  
He was sure that it would be even more fun soon enough, as even as he stared at the seemingly empty ocean, his connection to the Great Tree allowed him to see the approaching mass of dirt and rock that constituted the first other island that he has seen in living memory.  
  
Seeing the landmass on the horizon and turning the Island towards it, Senju went to the edge of the root covered coast and waited for the arrival of the rest of his impromptu council.  
  
The eye-like plant which allowed him to see the island thanks to its vantage point on top of the Great Tree was part of a large network of eye-like structures that allowed him to get a black and white picture of everything in the island, besides the various other sensory information that Senju could normally gather from the plants.  
  
Though it helped give him a literal constant surveillance, it did not provide him with any greater vision or telescope-like abilities, his attempts at creating greater eye-like structures haven't had much success so far. He was still working on getting colors, that part was surprisingly hard.  
  
Despite the various eye "donations" of creatures from around the Island, he hasn't had any great breakthrough there in a while.  
  
It was unfortunate that he was trying to avoid unnecessary murder, the Marines eyeballs would've been useful there… 'But if it's for science, is it really unnecessarily?...'  
  
"Aaaaaaaah!" The shrill scream removed Senju from his increasingly dangerous train of thoughts.  
  
'Ah, there they are.' He thought to himself watching the large vines that went down from the all-encompassing canopy of the Tree and held various of the newest inhabitants of the Island.  
  
The one screaming and flailing was Baccarat, who had been taking a nap in her improvised office, in the process of once again shirking her unwanted duties as administrator of the budding village, only to be awakened by being suddenly dragged away from her bed to thousands of feet up in the air towards an unknown destination.  
  
Really no idea what the panic was about, it was the third time that Senju had done something like this to her. One would think that she would've been used to it by now.  
  
Close to her, a group of five truck thick vines fought to keep the fishman imprisoned as he fought tooth and nail for his freedom mid-air, breaking out of the vines and being recaptured repeatedly.  
  
The fishman had spent these last weeks mostly avoiding pretty much everyone in the island, hiding in the nooks between the mountain sized roots that pulled the Island along the Blue.  
  
Bob had only managed to fight the swordsfishman because he occasionally left said roots to scout the place and to try to spy on the forest-man, and didn't mind throwing down with the threerilla after being ambushed by it.  
  
Senju had no idea if Kisame thought that he was being sneaky when he traveled around the Island, the tree-man had never told him about his omnipresence within the place, so he probably didn't know that he was Seen pretty much the whole time.  
  
He didn't bother telling the fishman about it, but he did pop up to throw down with Kisame once or twice for variety's sake, during the first meeting, after its subsequent fight, the two even ended up having an actual, proper conversation. A serious one. It was weird.  
  
They had a few other conversations since, but they were mostly shouting matches. What mattered to Senju was that the fishman likes fighting as well, so he doesn't complain too much when Senju emerges from the underground sea of roots and attacks him outta nowhere.  
  
Besides the two screaming and kicking against the vines, a tiny old man quietly let himself be dragged mid-air, a strangely serene smile in his face.  
  
He was Kotatsu, an oldman from Paradise who was apparently quite the administrator. Enough of one to get the Celestial Dragon's attention*, who had the man enslaved many years prior, after the Dragon worked his last steward to death.  
  
Since the breakout, he had been the one actually responsive for most of the administration of the village, solving what few disputes there were and helping along the distribution of resources as Baccarat threw whatever work that Senju threw at her at him.  
  
In a moment, the vines dragged the trio through the whole Island and then unceremoniously dropped them in front of their creator before returning to the canopy they came from.  
  
Baccarat landed panting and on shaking feet before hugging the ground… Senju resisted the urge to point out that most of his creations were under there.  
  
Kisame did a completely unnecessary backflip -seriously, he was released a foot off the ground- and landed pointing his sword-thing at Senju's direction once again.  
  
Kotatsu just landed as calmly as he was dragged and nodded towards me.  
  
Facing the rattled trio, a stoic kid and one confused Vice-Admiral, Senju delivered the day's big news.  
  
"Aaaaaaas you can see" He said stretching the "as" till the island that he could only see thanks to the sight connected to the eye-fruit at the vantage point above the Great Tree became visible to all on the horizon, upon which he pointed towards it with a thumb. "We're finally arriving at a new land." He said with a wide smile.  
  
Despite the silence of the five, Senju could hear the anxiety, tension, happiness and relief in the Voices of his audience.  
  
"So... any of y'all have an idea of both where this might be and what's the best way to unload a bunch of recently freed-slaves into an island?" He asked his make-shift council after a moment of dramatic silence.  
  
…  
  
"Kill them?" Answered/Asked Kimimaro, seeing the need to answer his self-imposed master as the silence stretched.  
  
"... Okay, that might solve the issue of how to unload a bunch of freed-slaves, as there would be none to unload, but what about discovering where we are?" He entertained the murderous kid as no one else was giving any other ideas.  
  
"Kill the place?" Kimimaro continued undaunted.  
  
Senju opened his mouth to ask "how?" and/or "what?", then he realised that he actually could do that.  
  
"Eh, I would rather not." He answered instead to hopefully get away from all these genocidal proposals.  
  
"Kill the doubt?" Kimimaro continued, refusing to be useless.  
  
Senju blinked at the Shounen-classic answer.  
  
"Well, that's completely useless objectively speaking." the tree-person replied scratching at his chin 'damn, I miss my beard'. "But it's much less murderous than normal for ya, so points for that." He continued with a thumbs up towards the kid.  
  
The brat needed more positive reinforcement in his life.  
  
Kimimaro stayed quiet. It seemed that his liege had taken a non-violent outlook on his answer and had preferred it that way, so he wouldn't correct him and explain that the albino warrior had meant it as in "kill both the freed-slaves and the island", the sources of the doubts.  
  
"Can we… move on to completely non-murderous options?" Baccarat answered tiredly from the side. Already tired from having dealt with way too much of the overly-violent everything around her.  
  
"Please do. My only plan so far is going "Yo! Y'all want two thousand traumatized people in there", and catapulting the village into the Island. There are probably better ways to go about it." The source of most of her headaches answered with a far too carefree smile towards her.  
  
She chose not to ask if he literally meant to catapult the village, her sanity was safer if she didn't ask.  
  
"Of course there are better ways to go about it." Baccarat murmured, rubbing her forehead with a tired sigh. "How about calmly explaining the situation, seeing how many refugees the island might be able to take, leave those that want there and then get directions for another island?" She finished explaining the simple plan based on common sense.  
  
"Sounds boring and slow though." Was the forest-man's quick reply.  
  
"It would avoid the outrage, fear and likely death of catapulting people from one island to the other." Interjected the smallest person there as Kotatsu actually put forth his opinion without it being asked for once.  
  
"I meant the whole village though, they can keep the houses." Senju corrected with a proud smile, as if catapulting houses was a magnanimous idea instead of the far more dangerous and idiotic option.  
  
Baccarat blinked at him, he continued to smile back.  
  
"You can't be serious." She deadpanned at his proud expression. "Did you hit your head during today's unnecessary death match?" She continued to his now offended expression.  
  
Senju tried to scratch at his beard again, then subsequently felt naked by the lack of said beard. "Just once, but it has nothing to do with it. I could make the houses some parachutes and literally throw them at plots of land. Safety almost guaranteed!" He finished with a thumbs up.  
  
"'Almost guaranteed' soothes no one!" She screamed the common sense into his face.  
  
"Well, I never tried it before, so it's not like I can say for sure it's gonna work." He said with a frown as if the question had been stupid.  
  
"So why the hell do want to risk lives on your first try!?" She said, frustrated by the entire situation. "Why-" And she took a deep breath to calm down. "Instead of such a risky approach, why not just stop near the island, talk with whoever is in charge and see if you can work something out? I'm sure th-" She tried to explain calmly, until she was interrupted.  
  
"Fine, fine. Fine." He cut in with his hands raised in the universal gesture of surrender. "I was gonna warn everyone first, make seat belts and parachutes for their houses. It would be awesome. But if y'all care so much about taking the boring route instead, ya can deal with that whole 'talking calmly' shtick." He concluded with a wave at Kotetsu and Baccarat's general direction. "I ain't very good at it."  
  
A snort interrupted Baccarat's coming complaint about the newest duty thrown at her. One which she would then throw at Kotatsu.  
  
"Understatement of the year." The fishman mumbled to himself, but loud enough for all to hear.  
  
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear ya over your hypocrisy. Mind repeating it?" Senju replied to the equally bad at diplomacy fish, a hand cupping his ear in said fish's direction.  
  
"Oh, I'm surprised that you know big words like hypocrisy, did you learn it in those anime of yours?" He said, putting emphasis on anime to mock the forest-man's ridiculous backstory.  
  
"Yep, like most of my words and human interactions." Senju replied easily enough, not caring about the barb and doubt over his backstory. "And how about ya? Did ya learn to give lip to your savior in your time as slave or while frothing and spasming after meeting a deathtoad?" He counter-posted, throwing in the fish's face how he was saved from both slavery and death by the man he was currently insulting.  
  
"Oh, you t-"  
  
Whatever the fishman was about to say in reply -probably nothing pacifying considering the way he gripped Samehada's handle- was interrupted by a loud clap of Comil's hand.  
  
The Vice Admiral had been quiet so far, both confused on why Senju called him here and not wanting to draw attention to himself. He was a soldier amongst freed-slaves that he guarded the cages of after all.  
  
But considering that his captor and the ex-terrorist that had almost killed the CP-0 agents seemed about to fight and that they were previously talking about rather unnecessarily dangerous ways of releasing the freed slaves, he felt the need to try to calm things down before people ended up dead.  
  
"I believe we are deviating from the rather immediate issue." He said with his hands raised in an attempt to look harmless, as he knew none besides maybe Senju cared much for the Marines right now. "Perhaps we-"  
  
His raised hands were soon covered in Armament and used to parry a large spiked blade to the side, an equally Armament covered knee raised to block a fishman karate palm strike to his ribs a blink later.  
  
Comil jumped back, hoping that one of the others would intervene and stop the fight, he both did not wish to further hurt the ex-slaves and he had no illusions of his chances against his captor. Definitely not in the forest covered island.*  
  
His hope was proven right, as before the fishman could follow with the Marine with a charging slash, another pair of haki covered hands grabbed the shark-blade-club and used it to lift the fishman off the ground and thow him back.  
  
Who did a mid-air cartwheel and landed on his feet behind Senju, the interloper now between the Vice-Admiral and the ex-Sun Pirate.  
  
"And the fuck is he doing here?!" The fishman snarled at the brown-haired palmtree in front of him, refusing to even direct word to the Marine.  
  
"Well, he's one of the most experienced people around, might as well get his opinion." Senju answered with a shrug.  
  
"You are taking a slaver's opinions now?!" The still tense swordsman snarled again, though now looking at the Marine even as he talked with Senju, the slaver statement clearly meant to be taken as an insult.  
  
One that was effective, considering Comil's visible flinch.  
  
"I'm listening to someone who I know to be intelligent and experienced before making decisions that will affect the lives of a couple thousands of people and my own. Yes." Was the forest-man's surprisingly rational response. "Now, can we-"  
  
"A man that's probably working to bring us all in to be the Celestial Dragons' pets!" The fishmans interrupted with a roar.  
  
Senju wanted to sigh, but he did expect this. He might suck at human stuff, but even he knew bringing a soldier from the guys that enslaved the people that he was talking with wouldn't exactly make for a peaceful conversation.  
  
It was still annoying to deal with it.  
  
The human-garden opened his mouth to defend both the impossibility, as he was always watching and had a pretty developed Observation, which made lying and plotting against him pretty hard, but then stopped to analyse the situation.  
  
Kisame remained in a fighting stance, sword pointed at Comil, who had his hands down but muscles visibly tense and ready to react.  
  
Baccarat kept switching between glaring at him or at the Vice-Admiral, and Kimimaro stepped in front of the forest-man with twin bone blades growing from his wrists, the prepubescent bodyguard barely reaching past Senju's knee caps.  
  
Kotatsu was both the least and most worrying one, as he just looked at everything with the same calm smile that he always wore, ignoring both the potential battle and the Marine presence behind him.  
  
'Ah, how troublesome.' Senju thought to himself as he Heard Kisame's anger spike and saw as his muscles tensed in order to throw himself at the Vice-Admiral again.  
  
Realizing that words wouldn't work, he gave up on explaining and calmed the situation the only way that he knew how.  
  
Instead of charging towards the Marine, the swordsfishman was forced to turn and hastily bring Samehada up to block a large armored, Armament covered hand, being sent back from the strength of the punch.  
  
"Whoever throws the first punch is getting beaten up. Just so ya know." He said while staring seriously at the fishman, though the warning was also for Baccarat, who hadn't stopped glaring at the Vice-Admiral.  
  
The entire Island shook menacingly to drive the threat home.  
  
He looked at everyone around the coast with a raised brow and hand, waiting to see if anyone would take his challenge. None did, so he lowered his hand and smiled once again.  
  
Truly, he was a master of diplomacy.  
  
"Now that that's dealt with." 'Dealt with my ass' thought two thirds of his audience. "I think we can all agree on letting Baccarat handle separating the freed-slaves who want to leave and talking with whoever lives at the island to take them in. All in agreement?" He continued, decided on going with his great plan of 'throw the problem at someone else'. It almost always worked.  
  
"What?!" The 'someone else' complained, finally stopping glaring at Comil in order to glare at Senju to defend her free time and peace of mind. "No way, nope, no, noooooo. You are not throwing more work at me, do it yourself!"  
  
"... I don't wanna." Was the forest-man's well thought out and reasonable response when the silence stretched and he realized that it wasn't a rhetorical question. "So, all in agreement?" He continued as if he hadn't just been interrupted.  
  
"No!" Was Baccarat's loud reply. She had literally all the luck in the world, she refused to do hard work damn it! That was for unlucky people!  
  
"Yes." Was Kimimaro's monotone one. He did not care about what was discussed, but if asked if he agreed with Senju, of course he would answer yes.  
  
They were the only ones to answer. Comil didn't believe himself apt to vote, Kisame was too busy glaring and baring teeth at the Vice-Admiral and Kotetsu just stared blankly at nothing with the constant smile on his face.  
  
"Perfect, Baccarat will handle it." Senju continued as if the vote had gone through, ignoring Baccarat glaring harder at him than she had been the Vice-Admiral. "I don't know why you act like it's a big deal, you will dump almost all the work on Kotastu."  
  
"Most, most! I would still have to do some of the work, damnit!" She did not even bother to combat that accusation. "Which I won't!" She added, stomping rather childishly on the ground.  
  
The smiling old man still didn't react, despite the confirmation that the work would be mostly his.  
  
"And how about you, old man?" Senju decided to ignore the red-head to ask the opinion of the one who will likely actually do most of the work. "Whatcha think?"  
  
"Whatever my lord demands, I shall supply." The oldman automatically replied in a voice that sounded happy and preppy, despite his Voice being hollow. The calm smile covering his face.  
  
"GAH!" Senju sounded out before giving the oldman a weak chop to the forehead. "Just call me Senju and answer normally!" He roared at the ex-slave.  
  
"I apologize for my failure, I shall strive to do better in the future, Lord Senju." Said Senju -no Lord- just let out a rasping breath of frustration, ignoring Kimimaro nodding in approval of the deference behind him.  
  
"Just-" He opened his mouth to try -once more- to convince the far too indoctrinated freed slave to just treat him more casually, but then decided it wasn't worth the headache. "Just go to the village and gather whoever wants to bail here. We should be arriving in… pretty soon actually, hurry."  
  
Kotatsu just nodded, muttered a "by your leave" and left with his constant smile still plastered on his face. Baccarat stomped after the old after a few more moments of glaring at Senju.  
  
Another hard day of work for Senju, delegator extraordinary.  
  
With one problem solved -or at least not his anymore-, he turned towards the glaring fishman and the cautious Marine.  
  
He smiled at them, the fishmans' glaring face suddenly became as cautious as the Marine's and the Marine was now cautious for a different reason.  
  
Then they both stumbled as the ground beneath them suddenly shot upwards at high speed.  
  
Each got up ready to defend themselves, only to almost be sent flying as the ground stopped as suddenly as it had shot up.  
  
Kisame managed to remain grounded because of Samehada's spikes pierced into the pillar, while Comil managed to hold onto the pillar with haki covered toes.  
  
The Vice-admiral and ex-Sun Pirate looked at their new surroundings, standing on a wooden pillar that stopped just below the beginning of the Great Tree's canopy, a couple thousand feet high.  
  
After a glance at the aerial view of the Island that their vantage point gave them, one of uneven hills covered in vegetation shadowed by both the Tree's canopy and its giant, open air roots, the two focused onto the approaching dot of more gray than green that grew ever larger on the horizon.  
  
"So, you two are most traveled around, any idea which island is that?" Senju asked the two  
  
"I'm afraid that not only it would've been hard to keep a chart of our position without the needed instruments, the prison and the canopy that covered my view removed any chance of that." The Vice-Admiral answered diplomatically before Kisame could chime with his "Of course not, dumbass".  
  
"Huh, that's disappointing." The lanky man said before plopping down at the edge of the pillar of wood, with his legs dangling out.  
  
…  
  
There was a moment of silence as the two watched the pillar's top they rested on grow horizontally, making a platform above the thin base that had been the original pillar.  
  
"…you brought us here for just that?" Comil said when the silence stretched. Kisame busy glaring at him and Senju busy staring at the approaching island.  
  
"Hm?" The tree-man asked back unfocused. "Oh, no. It was for that and so you could fight without risking breaking anything or anyone important." He answered without turning back towards them.  
  
Kisame clearly needed it, and fighting was always a good way to get over one's issues and patch things up. Just look at all the Shounen animes and Senju's own friendship with Bob.  
  
It hasn't worked as well with actual humans as he hoped so far, but it's still an ongoing process. He needs to beat some more people up, so he can be sure.  
  
"Wha-" Comil didn't have time to finish his question as he was forced to dodge to the side of a mass of haki covered spikes, then jump back when said spikes stretched.  
  
"I'LL JUMP IN IF YA LOOK LIKE YOU'LL KILL HIM!" He did not specify for who the warning was, he did not need to. Kisame frowned and tched at it, Comil just focused on dodging.

* * *

Almost an hour later Baccarat and… a surprisingly little amount of people showed up.  
  
Then again, it's only surprising until it's considered that Senju offered free food, board and a feeling of security against the Government that had wronged each of the freed slaves. Even if he brought about a whole other bunch of dangers with him.  
  
Still, seeing that a much smaller amount of the freed-slaves would be leaving of their volition then he expected, the plant-person now had to think of what to do with the remaining few.  
  
… He didn't really need people, some were nice, but there were a bunch of them on the island and they do take some resources. Should he keep them?  
  
'Eh, I'll figure it out after I dump the ones that want to leave and see my first other island.' He was surprisingly excited about that.  
  
He hadn't been in a rush to leave the Island, his project was to cover it completely in armor before setting sail, top to sea-floor. It would've taken some two more years of work for it to be ready if not for the Celestial Dragon forcing him to rush the mobilization and finish the armoring as he goes.  
  
But now that a new goal was in reach he felt… excited? Curious? Happy? Hungry? All of the four.  
  
The last one he solved with a bite of the fruit in his hand, before turning towards the gathered 'soon to no longer be his problems'.  
  
"As y'all can see, we're arriving at the next island, that… is on fire." Senju started, before turning to stare at the burning bright island in the distance.  
  
Staring in confusion at the town that rested on the island's coast as with their approach it became visible that the beacon of light they had begun to see half an hour or so ago wasn't the result of a well illuminated town*, but of a burning one.  
  
Kisame, the observant and poetic fishman that he was, enlightened the staring crowd. "Shit's on fire."  
  
He was there for a lack of anything better to do, supposedly not intent on leaving. But it was thankful that he was here to provide such intellectual commentary.  
  
"Ah, yes. Thanks, wonderful observation." I answered sarcastically and automatically, keeping my eyes at the approaching burning island while scratching my head. 'Well, at least there will probably be a fight there. That should be fun. If I find people still alive though, am I supposed to bring them along? No way I'm spending my mass on rebuilding this place… Maybe just take place? With the Island's preexisting bulk, I should be able to eat that one up in a couple of months. I think I lost the Marines already, so I probably could sit here for a couple of months.'  
  
"Senju, what are we supposed to do now? Are we still going to the island?" Baccarat asked as she saw that none of the others would. Most were either too nervous around the half-giant* madman or too broken. Or just didn't care, in Kimimaro's and Kisame's cases.  
  
"Hm?" He asked, having been lost in his thoughts on if the risk of being found by the government was worth taking the time to take the island and on the best and fastest way to take an island. He had his own planned out nice and slowly, so he was now figuring out the best way to rush it.  
  
"What. Do. We. Do?" She asked slowly while gesticulating at herself and the freed-slaves.  
  
"Ah, unless one of y'all wants to fight whatever is in there you can go back to the village. I'll see about the whole releasing y'all thingy after I deal with this." He said waving at the frightened ex-slaves while still focused at the approaching island. "And I have no idea why you included yourself in that us Baccarat. Take part of their luck, I'll keep them safe on the way back, you're staying."  
  
She spluttered. "Wh-Wha-!" She stopped herself mid-scream, and took a breath. But before she could rationally and calmly defend her not having any interest in risking her life in here, their attention was taken by a sharp sound and a cloud of dirt rising from the now almost visible harbour.  
  
As they had been conversing, the Island approached the island to the point it's burning buildings were now visible and the sounds of fighting started to ring through the air, even if they were still too far away to properly see most of the fighting.  
  
But even from afar, they could see the harbour that they were currently approaching. There the people were visible, even if ant-sized, and they could see a particularly fast ant speeding from one side of the port to the other, taking out any in its path as it did so.  
  
Baccarat, too busy staring at the high-velocity murder going on, didn't argue in time as the Island sped up at the sign of battle, throwing all but Kisame and Kimimaro on their backs.  
  
Before she could get up and snap out of it, the Island was already encircling the port and trapping the ships in there on an artificial lake created when the two islands collided, mountain sized thick roots burrowing into the new island as the Island's vegetation started growing unto it.  
  
"Let's go!" Senju roared as he jumped off the cliff towards what would've been open water, if a mountain thick root didn't surge from the cliff, caught him and dragging him, Kimimaro and Kisame who -respectively obviously and surprisingly- followed the half-insane forest-man to the war field of a port.  
  
Watching the mountain root growing ever distant as it approached the port, Baccarat stared at it, stared at the villagers that followed her here and stared at the burning port.  
  
She calmly walked towards the nervous villagers, who looked at her with expectant eyes, and then she started stealing their luck. She still had no intention of going there, but no way she wouldn't be prepared for if and when whatever insanity Senju did spilled over her.  
  
None fought her off or even complained about the luck theft, the villagers just looked confused and expectantly at her, as they didn't know about her powers. She made a point to not let many people know of her powers, it was harder to steal their luck when they do.  
  
So, just as Baccarat finished stealing a bit of the luck of the almost a hundred people gathered on the coast and prepared to leave with them back to the village, she noticed the vine-man staring at her more intensively than the apathetic plant creations tended to.  
  
Knowing of the forest-man's ability to connect with his creations, she had an idea of what that was about it. "No." She whispered/demanded of the plant-construct in front of her.* For a moment she thought it looked like it was smiling.  
  
Her mixture of plead, prayer and demand was for nothing as a second later a smaller root shot from the ground and dragged her towards the island either way.  
  
"YOOOOUUUU AAAASSSSHOOOOOLEEEE!"  
  
 ****

**At the unknown burning island.**   
  


For the first time in quite a while, Roland Rarhan was happy.  
  
After being forced into that oldman's crew before his pirate career could even properly begin, the speedster currently wrecking the port's defenders had gone through a... depressed and bitter period.  
  
He became a pirate to experience the freedom that was so romanticized about, the whole 'go whenever he wanted, take whatever he wanted, unrestricted by anything or anyone' shebang.  
  
Instead, he terrorized the West Blue for barely two months, then met a monster as soon as he entered the Grandline.  
  
A monster that had him caged, shackled and broken, until he was more of a servant than a pirate. One who then offered the broken man to one of his better subordinates as if he was a toy.  
  
And so, instead of a grand career of blood and adventure, the speedster had spent his days training and serving in the shadows, then going back to his gilded cage of a room. Until now that is.  
  
After so many days that he lost count, Roland was finally given something interesting to do, he was given command of one of the three forces tasked with invading the home island of that red-haired upstart.  
  
The speedster didn't really care about what the glutton or the oldman wanted with the upcoming West Blue sensation, he only cared that he would once again be able to experience the ultimate freedom of sailing a ship under your command and the joy of crushing your enemies.  
  
Only they weren't really his ship or his enemies.  
  
The thought made him frown and stop his constant, murderous rush around the battlefield for a second. And as he came down from Mach 4 speeds, he finally realised that it was oddly quiet for a battlefield.  
  
He didn't have to look around for the reason, for as soon as he turned his head sideways he saw the densely forested island that surrounded his small fleet at the port and covered the horizon. The thing seemed to be even larger than the island they were currently attacking.  
  
'When the fuck did this get here?!' The man thought to himself in shock, having not been paying much -any- attention to anything but his immediate surroundings while he was fighting around the port. "And what the fuck is that?!" He continued asking himself while staring at the living island warily.  
  
He had seen enough Grandline monstrosities to know that a dense, living and walking jungle was probably gonna try to murder you. That anything strange is likely to try to murder you really.  
  
So he was tense and ready to react even before a mountain-size root snaked its way through the air out of the island and into the port.  
  
A tall man jumped out of it even as it moved to lower his companions to the ground, his straight, long brown hair and green… tentacles? Waving in the air behind him.  
  
Both of his companions also jumped after him, so the root instead lowered itself to burrow into the ground, vegetation quickly growing around the area it burrowed itself into. There were already a few trees popping up amongst the burning houses and visibly growing grass covering the port.  
  
The brown-haired man fell on bended knees, then stretched up to reveal that he was wearing a white shirt, furry green pants and a living, green and brown coat of writhing tentacles over all of it.  
  
Roland barely noticed the albino looking kid and the fishman besides him.  
  
The new arrival took a look at the myriad of warriors, pirates and desperate citizens looking at him in either apprehension, fear or hope. And ignored all of it to smile straight at the speedster.  
  
Instead of trying to talk with the new arrival, the speedster struck before any could react, taking advantage of the small pause in their action, he rushed forward at an inhuman velocity and used his momentum to throw a devastating haki enhanced punch at the taller brown-haired man.  
  
A punch that he knew from past experience could destroy a cranium with ease.  
  
Roland skidded to a halt behind the three, then was forced to speed away again to avoid a large bone-white spike that surged from the ground beneath him.  
  
Stopping in front of the trio, -the albino kid now kneeled and the likely source of the spike-, Roland felt his eyes widen as instead of a headless corpse, he found the brown-man looking at him with a face that looked more like a cracked porcelain mask, a purple welt barely noticeable beneath the broken fungi armor.  
  
The porcelain mask reforged itself into a seemingly uninjured face, the previously mentioned welt quickly healing beneath it. The man opened and closed his mouth a few times and ran his tongue over the inside of his cheek where the welt was, and the remains of his injury were gone.  
  
Healed from the minor damage, the new arrival turned to smile at Roland again as if nothing had happened.  
  
"Ah, so you're the bad guy, right?" the lanky man asked, smile stretching too wide to be normal. Especially considering that his jawbone had been fractured a few seconds ago. "Please say yes, I was wanting a Devil Fruit user to experiment with." he finished as one of the coat's vines pierced through the floor for gods knows what reason.  
  
Roland felt a shiver run down his back, he wanted to go back to his cage now.  
 ****

* * *

**Felt the need to put something here to make the change from chapter to the AN below less abrupt, so just to tell anyone that has been following this for a while that I have grammar checked and changed a bit of chapters 1 to 7 recently.**   
****

* * *

**Probably unnecessary explanations:  
  
1 -** "He was Kotatsu, an oldman from Paradise who was apparently quite the administrator. Enough of one to get the Celestial Dragon's attention*..."  
  
Just a minor OC character, he will be mentioned in the background as a councillor/right-hand of Baccarat, the one who does all the administrative work that Senju throws at her. Might show up in a meeting or two further on.  
  
He definitely won't be anything major, but I was bored, so here's a summary of his backstory:  
  
A commoner from a small kingdom at Paradise, Kotatsu excelled at business and administration, making his family a fortune and setting all of his children for life.  
  
He was close to retiring when the Celestial Dragon's marched into town and demanded his service in managing a propriety of the Dragon's at the island (after the Dragon had the previous steward killed for inane reason #88).He unfortunately did too good of a job, and two years into the forced work he had the "honor" of being part of the Dragon's personal retinue. Basically he was taken as a slave to work for the Dragon at Mary Geoise.  
  
Never the bravest person and with plenty to lose, he went without resistance for his family's safety. A slave for 12 years now, Kotatsu has a tendency to have a small smile constantly present on his face, as apparently the Celestial Dragons found it dreary when the slaves looked sour.  
  
 **2 -** "Comil jumped back, hoping that one of the others would intervene and stop the fight, he both did not wish to further hurt the ex-slaves and he had no illusions of his chances against his captor. Definitely not in the forest covered island.*"  
  
Considering that he was part of the slaver fleet, he sounds hypocritical. And maybe kinda cowardly.  
  
On the possible cowardice, I was mostly trying to portrait him as someone who believes he deserves to have been captured -considering said participation in the slaver fleet- and is logical enough to realise both that his chances against the MC are pretty steep and that he is the only thing keeping the collection of frightened captured Marines and reckless Cipher Pol agents from doing something stupid and commiting suicide by plant.  
  
On the hypocrisy, yeah… That's pretty much every good Marine's problem for me. During the whole Levely arc I was staring at Issho talking about the dangers of government-allowed pirates while completely ignoring the slavers' den that he was debating on.  
  
 **3 -** " with their approach it became visible that the beacon of light they had begun to see an hour or so ago wasn't the result of a well illuminated town*"  
  
Is it too much of a coincidence that they approached a proper seeing range just as the slaves arrived? No, Senju slowed down the Island to time it that way for dramatic purposes. Is it too much of a coincidence that they arrived at the same time of an attack in general?… Yes… I needed to push the plot along.  
  
 **4 -** "... around the half-giant* madman"  
  
It's a manner of speech, the MC is not half-giant, even half-giants are far larger than him (there was one in the anime, none in the manga that I remember).  
  
Some people in One Piece are just mad tall for no reason. Doflamingo is 10ft, Whitebeard is 21ft, Moria and Kuma are 22ft, Enel 8ft, etc. The MC will be 14ft. Why? Well, why not? His is the result of the ultra-vitamin shakes he takes daily and One Piece insane biology.


End file.
